Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Confident In Our High Priest" Tuesday, 13 January 2015 - Scripture: Hebrews 4: Jesus Is the Great High Priest14 We have a great high priest, who has gone into heaven, and he is Jesus the Son of God. That is why we must hold on to what we have said about him. 15 Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! 16 So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.
5:1 Every high priest is appointed to help others by offering gifts and sacrifices to God because of their sins. 2 A high priest has weaknesses of his own, and he feels sorry for foolish and sinful people. 3 That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins and for the sins of others. 4 But no one can have the honor of being a high priest simply by wanting to be one. Only God can choose a priest, and God is the one who chose Aaron.
5 That is how it was with Christ. He became a high priest, but not just because he wanted the honor of being one. It was God who told him,
“You are my Son, because today
I have become your Father!”
6 In another place, God says,
“You are a priest forever
just like Melchizedek.”[a]
7 God had the power to save Jesus from death. And while Jesus was on earth, he begged God with loud crying and tears to save him. He truly worshiped God, and God listened to his prayers. 8 Jesus is God’s own Son, but still he had to suffer before he could learn what it really means to obey God. 9 Suffering made Jesus perfect, and now he can save forever all who obey him. 10 This is because God chose him to be a high priest like Melchizedek.[Footnotes:
5.6 Melchizedek: When Melchizedek is mentioned in the Old Testament, he is described as a priest who lived before Aaron. Nothing is said about his ancestors or his death (see 7.3 and Genesis 14.17-20).]
"Confident In Our High Priest" by Paul Martin
Look across the Grand Canyon, what an awesome view! The incredible expanse from rim to rim; the breathtaking depth! And, from where I stood, there was no way across! When humankind turned from the Creator to become their own god, an incredible chasm separated Maker from created ones. Now, what? No way across!
“A priest,” wrote H. Ray Dunning, “as indicated by the Latin term from which it comes, is a bridge builder creating the possibility of traffic both ways—from God to humanity as well as from humanity to God.”* Christ, the incarnate Son, provided the way across—the priestly bridge! Down he descended, though God, He was incarnated into human flesh, took the form of a slave, stepped even further down to death of the lowest kind—crucifixion—and that by the hand of those He came to save! (see Philippians 2:5-11).
As regards One to represent us to God and to bring God to us, how can you go higher than Jesus the Christ! I have full confidence in Him. Shall we together?[*H. Ray Dunning, Superlative Christ: Devotional Studies in Hebrews, Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2001, 46.]
Hymn for Today: "Great High Priest, we view thee stooping" by Joseph Hart
1. Great high priest we view the stooping
With our names upon thy breast;
In the garden groaning, drooping,
To the ground, with sorrow pressed.
2. Weeping angels stood confounded,
To behold their maker thus:
And can we remain unwounded,
When we know 'twas all for us?
3. On the cross thy body broken,
Cancels every penal tie,
Tempted souls produce the token,
All demands to satisfy.
4. All is finished, do not doubt it,
But believe your dying Lord,
Never reason more about it,
Only take him at his word.
5.. Lord we fain would trust thee solely,
'Twas for us thy blood was spilt;
Praised bridegroom, take us wholly,
Take and make us what thou wilt.
6 Thou hast borne the bitter sentence
Past on man's devoted race;
True belief and true repentance,
Are thy gifts, thou God of grace.
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