(A)Introduction

The passage contains four different pictures of the Saviour at work. There are four attempts to describe how he achieved our salvation. Each emphasises the importance of Jesus identifying with us, his brothers. His saving work would have been impossible without his manhood - he had to become one of us to reconcile us to God.

(B) Jesus the representative v17 he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

To atone means to pay the price for wrong done, the penalty justice demands. We have to satisfy the wronged party. When I exceeded the 50 miles an hour speed limit on the A14 in Suffolk I offended against the State. Parliament introduced laws to control speeding and parliament insists that I atone for my misdeeds by paying fines or being disqualified from driving. There is no way out.

Since the days of Moses the Jews were aware that they failed to obey God's law and needed to atone, pay the price for wrong done. Fortunately for them God set a price. It involved making a sacrifice or, in other words, making a token payment. All sacrifices were only a token payment. God showed his grace, his love for offenders, by accepting token payments made in good faith. The sacrifices were made by the High Priest who was the people's representative. He identified with his people. He was a sinner too and had first to offer up a bull to atone for his own sins. Then he used a pair of goats to pay for the people's sins. A couple of goats - it was indeed a token payment! There are two points to note:

(a) There was little personal cost to the High Priest in making the payment for wrong done.

(b) It was the goats that paid the price. It was they and not the High Priest who were substitutes for the sinful people. The goats were innocent of any failings themselves but they were hardly willing to make the sacrifice. One goat was slain and its blood sprinkled over the holy box, the Ark of the Covenant, symbol of God's presence in the Holy of Holies of the temple. The other, the scapegoat, was released into the wild and bore the sins of the people far, far, away.

There is a crucial difference between the two representatives described above and Jesus. They share the guilt of the organisations they belong to; they are not perfectly innocent, without blame. So let us turn again to the Day of Atonement and see how it helps us to understand the work of Jesus:

(a) He is like the High Priest in identifying with us. He is the second Adam -v17 He had to be made like his brothers in every way. It is only a man who could save men like us.

(b) He resembles both the sacrificial goat and the scapegoat in being innocent of doing any wrong. Like the sacrificed goat he suffered death on our behalf and like the scapegoat he bore our sin and removed it far from us. His ministry is admirably summed up in the words of the well loved hymn:

(c) Jesus in being able to combine the characteristics of the High Priest, the people's representative, and the God given role of the goats was able to pay in full, once and for all, the penalty for man's disobedience to God his maker. He died to make men holy.

The only guilt he bore was OURS and that is why we benefit.

(C) Jesus is the Pioneer or Author of our Salvation.v10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of our salvation perfect through suffering.
There are three aspects of Jesus work as a pioneer that I wish to examine:

(1) The pioneer's work involves risk and courage. v9 so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
The pioneer enters uncharted territory. He goes where others have never been and where they fear to go. Last year I was watching Look East, my local news programme on T.V., as they featured the Addenbrook's surgeon who pioneered heart by pass surgery. It was the fortieth anniversary of the first operation. Those early operations were very risky and took courage to attempt. Nobody had gone that way before. It was very touching to see so many patients who had benefited from the techniques pioneered so long ago paying tribute to the aging surgeon who had saved their lives.

How was Jesus a pioneer of our salvation. Well he entered uncharted territory when he offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, completed that work on the cross and then committed his spirit into the hands of God the Father. It think it was risky for the Son to lose touch with the Father. It required courage to bear alone the sins off us all. Jesus won through. He conquered death and came through to glory.

(2) The pioneer's key to success v10 God... should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering
The pioneer has to overcome difficulties even to the extent of suffering to acquire the experience that leads to eventual success. The pioneer farmers in the Great Plains of America experienced much hardship and many failures before they evolved the dry farming methods of fallowing, shallow ploughing, mulching and so on. They did not move out of woodlands in the east with these methods - they were worked out by trial and error. So Jesus was made perfect through suffering. He had to overcome difficulties before he was qualified to complete the work of salvation. Jesus was tempted, tested and tried and thereby won the Father's approval - this is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased.Matthew 17v5

(3) The pioneer's unique contribution.v10 Made perfect through suffering to bring many sons to glory
The pioneer identifies with both a problem and a people. The pioneering surgeon identifies with the difficulties of heart surgery and those who perform it, namely, other surgeons. He overcomes the difficulties and prepares the way for other doctors to eventually share in his success. The pioneer prepares the way for others to follow.
That is why Jesus needed to be a man, a member of our family, our brother. v11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. Only a man could pay the penalty for sin by men. Jesus is the first fruits of them that sleep. He alone is the way to God. We, his followers, will share in his experience. We too will die, rest in paradise, be raised to life on his return to earth and finally be presented to God the Father and enter into glory. The path we follow will be identical to his. The Great Pioneer went the way he did that we might follow.

Perhaps at the close of these first two sections I could make two practical points. Christians should be willing to join and represent their local churches. Some Christians are not prepared to identify closely with the church they attend. Perhaps, they perceive its failings. Just as Jesus shared and took responsibility for our failings so, we too, should be prepared to take responsibility for the weaknesses of our church. Secondly we should be less reluctant to support pioneering forms of Christian service. They are something to admire and cherish. Recently Mr Oliver who pioneered missionary work in Nepal was buried in our small country graveyard. What a privilege and pleasure it was to have fellowship with him through the years.

(D) Jesus is the Liberator v14 and 15 by his death......free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Fear is a bad master in three ways.

(1) It fills us with dread
Old Mrs Dorothy Boreham whom I visit has a daughter Brenda. Years ago she attended primary school with her older cousin Pamela. They both had a very strict teacher called Polly Freeman. Pamela, who should have known better, told her small impressionable cousin that Miss Freeman would ask her to recite the ABC backwards and if she couldn't Polly would give her the stick. Dorothy was very concerned when her daughter developed headaches and sickness every morning before leaving for school. A wise doctor diagnosed stress. The truth came out. Fear and dread had made her ill.
Satan will portray God as a tyrant. We are told that he expects us to recite the ABC backwards and if we cannot then we will pay for it. In Jesus' own day the Pharisees did Satan's work. Jesus said that they bound burdens to men's backs and never lifted a finger to help. God could only be pleased by a slavish attention to a multitude of rules and regulations. There are legalistic churches today whose leaders go father than God does in enforcing a certain code of behaviour or set of doctrines for church membership. There are still petty tyrants who make God in their own image.
When Christian in Bunyan's, 'Pilgrim's Progress' came up with the cross the burden of sin that he bore loosed from off his shoulders, fell from off his back and he saw it no more. I love the words of Bunyan
Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart,
"He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death." Then he
stood still a while to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to
him that the sight of the Cross should thus ease him of his burden.

Christian's sin was particularly burdensome because it gave him a dread of dying and facing God in judgement. However as the writer to the Hebrews puts it in v14: By his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death. The death of Jesus on the cross shows that we have nothing to fear. As Paul writing to the Romans says: Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Ch8v34.

(2) It takes the joy out of life.
Fear is restrictive. I have been out walking with friends who fear cows. Perhaps our route involves walking through a meadow of cows. We have to change our route or retrace our steps and spoil the walk because of this fear. The joy is taken out of our stroll through the countryside. Paul's joy in ministry would have been destroyed if he had feared death. He would have avoided all risks and achieved little
Fear is also obsessional. When I was a boy, my brothers and I, sometimes walked on a Sunday afternoon along the Rede road to Scole's Gate - a little hamlet not far from the Suffolk village of Brockley where we lived. As we approached White House Farm at Scole's Gate we could hear the farm dog barking. It had a particularly ferocious bark. It scared us. The nearer we got to the farm the louder the barking became. All we could think about was that dog. Our imaginations ran riot. Conversation stopped. The pleasure went out of our walk. Eventually we started to run and it wasn't until the barking faded away in the distance that we could relax and begin to enjoy ourselves again. The dog was chained!!
There are those who think of death every day. It blights their lives. The spectre of the grim reaper haunts them. It is wonderful to be able to sing from the heart:

The Christian knows that Jesus by his death has destroyed him who holds the power of death. The old dog is chained. We have been set free because Jesus tasted death for every man. He has defeated sin, and death and Satan. Jesus is the resurrection and the life and those that believe on him shall never die. The old dog is chained - all he can do is bark. For some that is bad enough. The act of dying still frightens us. Well all the years I walked to Scole's Gate the chain held. All the dog did was bark. I love the incident in Bunyan's, ' Pilgrim's Progress,' where Christian encountered the two lions in the way. He halted as if he would go back but Watchful cried out, "Fear not the Lions, for they are chained." So Christian went on, trembling for fear of the lions. . He heard them roar but they did him no harm. Then he clapped his hands, and went on. So let us clap our hands and go on trusting in our liberator, Jesus, who sets us free from fear.

(3) It means men turn to the world for distractions
There have been occasions when I have sat in the dentist's waiting room knowing that I am going to have a tooth filled. I am not exactly full of dread but slightly apprehensive about the dentist's drill. I always imagine he is going to start drilling before the injection takes hold and numbs the nerve. So to distract myself I begin reading the magazines left in the waiting room. I read articles I would never usually read. Anything to take my mind of the drill.
Satan uses the fear of death to distract men and women. They pursue pleasure, they fill their lives with unremitting activity, so that there is never time to think about death. The cross of Jesus is still able to grab men's attention. That is why Paul preached it, and the evangelist Billy Graham preached it, because Jesus said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me".

(D) Jesus is the Fellow Sufferer. v18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

There is no doubt that you suffer when you are tempted and resist temptation. Many years ago my Uncle David, a married man, fell in love with an affectionate girl with whom he worked. He resisted the temptation to abandon his wife and children and remained faithful to his vows. For thirty five years he resisted temptation. But he never lost contact with the woman he loved. When his wife died he got in touch and the woman left her husband and went to live with him. The temptation never left him. He did not quite resist to the end. Jesus knew the full anguish of temptation because he did hold out to the end. He knows better than anyone else what it is like and he can help. So let us take comfort and:

(1) Be encouraged to ask for help
So many people in trouble do not get help because they do not ask. They may be unwilling to ask because they are not certain of a sympathetic response. I was on a car journey to play hockey. The driver was carrying on about stress. He had little time for people suffering with stress. He reckoned people in war torn countries like Sudan or Afghanistan might have stress but not those who complained of it in prosperous Britain. He was of course wrong. Men and women caught up in war are traumatised rather than stressed. The symptoms of stress are real. I have suffered them myself: blackouts, hyperventilation, tenseness, panic attacks, and a sense of being out of control. If someone suffered from stress I would be a much better person to talk to than the driver of the car. I have been through it and can sympathise. Jesus has been through it and can sympathise. We can talk to him about all our problems. He even knows what it is like to feel that God does not care. It was he who cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"

(2) Allow him to point you in the right direction
The person who can point us in the right direction is the one who has shared our experience and found a way through to success or victory. I play cricket with a childhood friend and master printer, Ken Boreham. He said to me in exasperation recently that so many of his work force come to him with problems because they have not been through the tough apprenticeship and learning process that he did. However he can help them because he has been through it. Jesus has been through it so we can approach him for help with confidence. I have to say that when I am being tested and I pray for assistance Jesus, by his spirit, will direct me to a passage of scripture appropriate to my predicament. He is like the master printer who puts his finger on the relevant part of the manual.

(3) Expect him to reinforce the right decision
Dogs and even children can be persuaded to do what is right through fear. There is another way and that is to reinforce good behaviour by approving it. On the whole that is how Jesus by his Spirit operates. Even Jesus when he was suffering on the cross needed his father's approval. I like to think that the dying thief when he said, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom", (Lk23v42) was God the father's instrument in encouraging the Son. Those words of the thief were a shaft of light, glorious confirmation that God's will was being done, divine approval of the work Christ was doing. We all need confirmation from time to time that we are in the will of God. My brother Paul is a Pastor in Clapham, London. One morning, by first post, he received the resignation of his right hand man and confidant. It was a terrible blow. There had been little blessing for several years. This was the last straw. By second post he received another letter from two mature Christians who felt called to join his church and assist him in the work. It was God confirming his ministry and since then the church has grown.

(E) Conclusion

At one of the assemblies at the High School at which I taught we had as our visiting speaker the Headmaster of the Perse School in Cambridgeshire. He told a telling story about a fat boy who hated cross-country running and always came last. A rather sadistic P.E. teacher punished the boy by making him run another half mile around the running track. This went on week after week. Eventually two boys took pity on him. Although they were both good athletes they decided to come last in his place and stead. It is not easy to come last and receive the approbation of a sardonic teacher. They did so and the Headmaster said that the over weight boy never came last again. He was helped to succeed by the sacrifice of two of his peers. Jesus came last for us. He suffered humiliation and disgrace to bring many sons to glory. His blood can make the vilest clean. His love lifted me.