Message: " Jesus, Our High Priest" Part 4

“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.  For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:11-14

Jesus the Son, our elder brother, He is the Prophet, Priest and King, pointing to the way He opened for us and the Holy Spirit within us to be our light and strength, to enable us to walk in the way.  This entering in and opening up of the Holiest was solely and entirely on our behalf, that we might live and serve there.  Therefore the practical part of the epistle commences at once, having therefore, brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest, let us draw nigh.  That is the summing up of the whole epistle.  God is not content that we should serve Him with a veil between us.  “And having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Heb 10:21-22 

The great blessings of the new worship are 1) the holiest opened up, 2) boldness in the blood, 3) a new and living way and 4) the great high priest.  Also, marks of the true worshippers are 1) a true heart, 2) fullness of faith, 3) a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, 4) the body washed with clear water.  “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering (for He is faithful that promised).  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Heb 10:23-25

Now that the veil is opened we are compelled to 1) draw nigh in fullness of faith, 2) hold fast the profession of our hope, 3) consider one another to provoke unto love and 4) not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.  Christ can bring us into the Holiest in no other way than He went in Himself, through His own blood.  We should seek to know the power of Christ’s blood, the blood of the eternal covenant. It was His blood that cleansed the heavenly things themselves, and He entered the Holiest on our behalf.  In those heavenly places our sins were in God’s book, and our sins had a thick cloud darkening God’s presence, but for the sake of the blood the sin was blotted out and access given to Jesus.  Jesus in turn gave it to us to appear before the face of God Himself.  In heaven we not only find God the Father who is the judge of all and Christ the mediator of the New covenant, but we find our present day High Priest who ever liveth making intercession for us.  Praise God forever!

Elder Carolyn Prescod