Monthly Archives: December 2009

Hebrews 5:4-5 (ESV)

And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

[5] So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,

“You are my Son,

today I have begotten you”;

What is the relationship between the appointment of Jesus as high priest and His sonship? This text says that Jesus did not take the honour of the priesthood upon Himself but He was appointed to it by the one who said “You are my Son. Today I have begotten you.”

Does this mean that before Jesus was appointed as high priest he was not the begotten Son? The Scriptures will not allow that. Can we ever speak of a “time” when Jesus was not appointed to be high priest? The relationship between Jesus sonship and His appointment as high priest is that in becoming high priest Jesus is not grabbing something that is too lofty for Him.

Someone could argue that Jesus didn’t have the right to be high priest since He was not from the priestly tribe of Levi. “Quite right”, the writer to the Hebrew believers says. He is not a Levite. He is the Son of God. Christ was not exalting Himself when He took the office of eternal high priest. He is not stepping up. He is stepping down. He is the eternal King that the quoted Old Testament passage talks about. He is a priest, not by virtue of His tribal heritage, but because of His being a priest like Melchizedek. (More on him some other time).

When Christ became the great high priest that we need in order to be eternally forgiven, He was being obedient to His Father. He was not exalting Himself, He was submitting Himself to the will of the Father. Can we just stop there and think about that as it relates to our obedience?

How often do we grumble about what God’s standards are? How often do we wish that pre-marital sex wasn’t wrong, or that wasting hours of time in front of games and TV and general mindlessness was all commanded by God? How often do we simply choose to do what we want instead of what God tells us? As the Son of God, the second Person of the trinity obeyed the will of His eternal Father by “making Himself nothing, and becoming obedient to death…”.

You have commandments from God that are too difficult? You are hard done by, by the God you have been called to serve? God has given you things to do that are below you?? All these attitudes melt away before the Christ who was appointed and willingly came to earth to die for sinners. How dare we say that God is being unfair. There can be nothing more unfair than the sinless Son of God taking the punishment for a vast numberless host of people who were happy to run away from Him, who did not deserve to be sought after, and who do deserve eternal punishment. The Gospel is stunning. And those who really have it will live their lives in joyful service to Him and others, no matter who they are and what it takes.

Psalm 20:1-9 (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!

May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

[2] May he send you help from the sanctuary

and give you support from Zion!

[3] May he remember all your offerings

and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah

[4] May he grant you your heart’s desire

and fulfill all your plans!

[5] May we shout for joy over your salvation,

and in the name of our God set up our banners!

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

[6] Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with the saving might of his right hand.

[7] Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

[8] They collapse and fall,

but we rise and stand upright.

[9] O Lord, save the king!

May he answer us when we call.

When things are going well it is so easy to read the parts of Scripture that talk about the comfort of God and God being present in times of trouble. We can breeze over them and not be stopped in our tracks and not feel the impact of what is being communicated to us, what has been preserved for us by God.

But when we are in a pickle; when we are being opposed; when things are very dark and we cannot see light and a resolution to the crisis is just impossible to envision – and we turn to a piece of Scripture that says “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble” then it brings us up short. It is no longer just another piece of Scripture spouting off platitudes about a God who cares. It now is God visiting us and whispering in our ear and telling us that He is here and He knows and cares and is at work and even this thing, whatever it is, is not outside of all things that work together for your good.

The Psalm before us today drips with encouragement to discouraged saints. If this is you today, then read it and find great consolation from the God of heaven. If everything is just going fine right now then remember this Psalm. Life is full of trouble and if you are not in some right now, you can remember when you were and the last time will not be the very last time. This is not to depress or dishearten. It is simply the truth and the Scriptures recognize that such is the case.

The Bible does not hide the fact that life is hard. Those who think that commitment to Christ means stress free living have not been reading their Bibles in any truthful sense. “In this life you will have tribulation” said Jesus and no real saint will ever accuse Him of getting that one wrong.

But what are we to do when it comes? 1) Remember that such things are promised by the God who loves you and sent His Son to die for you so you could have eternal life. 2) Remember that Jesus suffered in every way just like us. We do not come to one who has not suffered. 3) Remember the texts such as the one before us today. There are hundreds of similar words of encouragement in the Scriptures and if you maintain a regular habit of studying the Scriptures you will encounter them when you need them. May I say that this is my own testimony? I have been in some very deep water and I have been tempted to think that it will overpower me. This Psalm says otherwise and this very Psalm has been used by God in unmistakable ways simply because it was the scheduled reading for the day. What a balm to the soul verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 have been to me. (Oh verse 7! Thank you Lord)

How good God is. May you find the consoling counsels of Scripture to be a real help to you when you need them most. It is why God has given them to you. Find Him there. Find hope. Find comfort. And be amazed at how God ordered things so well that on this day you found that text which was just what you needed. What a God.

Psalm 11:1-7 (ESV)

To the choirmaster. Of David.

In the Lord I take refuge;

how can you say to my soul,

“Flee like a bird to your mountain,

[2] for behold, the wicked bend the bow;

they have fitted their arrow to the string

to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;

[3] if the foundations are destroyed,

what can the righteous do?”

[4] The Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord’s throne is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids test, the children of man.

[5] The Lord tests the righteous,

but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

[6] Let him rain coals on the wicked;

fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

[7] For the Lord is righteous;

he loves righteous deeds;

the upright shall behold his face.

There are those followers of Christ who are always seeing reason to panic. The last days prognosticators who see signs of the return of Christ preceded of course by unprecedented hardship and persecution and woes upon the faithful.

There are those who want the culture to return to the halcyon days of post war North America when the churches were full of people, the “great hymns of the faith” (mostly revivalist hymns from the late 19th century) were sung and there were laws against immorality and Sunday shopping. Now that all those things are lost to history they bemoan the state of the society and complain about how good and moral (the churches were full) it used to be when they were young. There is a tinge of panic in their voices. “I don’t know what’s gone wrong with the world” “What in the world is happening”. “The Lord must be coming soon, the signs are everywhere.”

Then there are those who advocate buying up gold for the coming economic crash that is guaranteed to come soon. And then there are those who just worry. “What if the Muslims take over and Christianity becomes illegal? What if the government forces the church to perform marriages of homosexuals? What if being a Christian means losing my job?”

David addressed this kind of thinking over 3000 years ago. People look around and see the evil that prevails and they panic. David will have none of it. “Why” he asks “do people say ‘flee to the mountains?’” It never occurs to David that he should put his tail between his legs and hide simply because the days are evil or the truth is opposed or evil seems to be triumphing.

No matter what is happening “The Lord is in His holy temple, … the Lord tests the righteous…, the righteous shall behold his face and in the Lord he takes his refuge.” In other words. Since I trust the One who is really in charge, why should I fear His enemies? This is the attitude that all the faithful should have. We are not lovers of pain or suffering, but we will not fear those who can only destroy the body. Our hope is in the One who can destroy both body and soul and cast them into hell. He is for us and we will not fear – though the mountains be cast into the sea.

How we need this message today. How we need this kind of faith and fearlessness. There are far far too many Christians who lay claim to the sovereignty of God and at the same time panic when things are bleak and death is imminent or the house is being reclaimed or the child is not going to recover. None of these things are a surprise to God and He is using them for His glory and our good. We will not flee to the mountains. God is the refuge for our souls. He rules over everything and He is for us. That is the greatest remedy for fear there can be. Oh that more believers would receive it and walk upright because of the God they serve. Today, do not let fear rule your day. Overcome evil with good. Make the small corner of the world you live in a better place. If you are God’s child you have nothing to fear.

Psalm 31:1 (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame;

in your righteousness deliver me!

How is it righteous for God to deliver His people? It could be that David has been falsely accused and that since it would be wrong for him to be held accountable for something he did not do, God would be righteous in not letting him be put to shame for something it.

But there is a greater application of this than just asking God to treat us fairly. This is Gospel truth. The cross of Christ is a demonstration of the righteousness of God (Romans 3:21-25). The cross shows that God is righteous. It does that through Jesus being a propitiation for our sins.

In His righteousness God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. In His love He cannot allow Hie chosen ones to eternally perish. Jesus comes and pays the penalty for our sins, satisfying the justice of God. See the righteousness of God when you see Jesus on the cross. This is why we can cry the prayer of Psalm 31:1.

The reason we can ask God to deliver us and be righteous in doing so is because our sins have already been paid for by Christ on the cross. The reason we are able to take refuge in Christ at all is because He died for us. The reason we can flee to God and not be destroyed is because He has already destroyed His Son for us. “O Lord” we cry, “It would not be righteous for you to put us to shame, since you have already put Jesus to shame for us. Rescue us in your righteousness.”

It is a bold request to ask God to act righteously for us seeing that we deserve nothing but judgement and hell. But Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree and it would be unrighteous for Him to refuse to hear us when we come to him through the One who paved the way to God for us.

This is why John can say that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins? How can forgiving me be an act of justice? Because He has already punished the sin and He will not punish it again. Christians have no fear of judgement (I John 4:18). We come boldly into His presence because of the work of Christ and confidently plead the merits of Christ, knowing that the faithful God will honour the work of His Son on our behalf. What a glory the Gospel is!!

Psalm 23:1-6 (ESV)

A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

[2] He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

[3] He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

[4] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

[5] You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

[6] Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever.

God is said to lead us to two different places in this Psalm: still waters and the paths of righteousness. Still waters is the place of peace and safety. It is the place where we do not worry about attack and opposition. It is the place where we can feed and sleep knowing that our Good Shepherd is taking care of us.

The path of righteousness is the life of righteousness that pleases God. Living the righteous life that God has graciously led us to through faith in Jesus Christ produces the inner peace. The place of peace that God leads us to produces a life of righteousness.

We have, first of all, peace with God through Jesus Christ and the consistent testimony of the New Testament is that salvation always results in holiness. There is nothing more miserable than a true believer who has sinned. He has taken a different path for a brief period. It may be a word said or an action done. Whatever the sin and whatever the time involved, it takes him away from the still waters where righteousness is found. The result is a believer who is not at peace.

This may demonstrate itself in grumpiness, irritability, impatience, pessimism or any number of unwelcome attitudes and feelings. It will be the absence of the fruit that the Holy Spirit bears in those who are His who walk by the Spirit. Christians often think that they can fake their spirituality.

How many are into late night porn, disrespect to wives, exasperation of their kids, unsubmissive to their husbands, out of sorts with fellow believers, never speaking to the lost regarding what God can do for them, refusing to repent and forgive. And all the while they maintain that their spiritual lives are in order. Their spiritual lives are abundantly out of order and in their hearts and minds the waters are not very still.

Verse 3 tells us that the reason we are led into these paths of righteousness is for the sake of His own name. This means that when we are not walking righteously and therefore not at peace we are causing God’s name not to be known. A Christian who is in sin and therefore not at peace is a detriment to the Gospel and a negative influence upon the glory of the great God that He claims to serve.

O that Believers would understand that their behaviour effects more than their puny little lives and their own sense of well being. Sin makes God look like He is not the righteous King that He is. Sin should shame us, not first of all because of the discipline or the lack of peace it brings, but because it robs God of glory. Any believer who knows that and does not beat his body and make it his slave (I Corinthians 9:24-27) may very well be fooling himself regarding his faith in Christ.

We will not always win the battles against sin that we are thrown into. But the real Christian will be more concerned about what his sin does to the name of his God than he is about what the consequences are for him if he falls and is disciplined by God.

So, how are you doing? Psalm 23 is the best known Psalm in all the Psalter. Christians have found comfort from it for 2000 years. We should rejoice in the fact that God is the God of comfort that this Psalm says He is. But let us not neglect to see and heed the warnings about what a lack of righteousness produces that we find in this Psalm.

There are far far too many Christians who do not understand how this Psalm can be true given the fact that their lives are so absent of peace. They need to read it more carefully and they need to at least consider that part of the reason for their lack of peace may be that they have not walked the path of righteousness that God has put them on. Don’t be one of those Christians.

Today, live a disciplined day of righteousness and know the peace that God gives to those who obey Him.

Hebrews 5:1-4 (ESV)

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. [2] He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. [3] Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. [4] And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

The reason the high priests were able to be gentle with those they were working on the behalf of was because they themselves were “beset with weakness”. The author is making a comparison between the priests of the Old Covenant and Jesus Christ, the perfect great high priest. They were weak and Jesus came in weakness, suffering in all ways as we do without sin. But this concept of being able to help others because of one’s weakness is worth exploring a little bit.

Christians are called to bear one another’s burdens, encourage one another, lift up the weak and so on. Pastors, in particular, are expected to feed and heal and correct and chase after the sheep. The good pastor knows his sheep. The point being made in this fifth chapter of Hebrews is that the help is better when it comes from people that are weak themselves.

What a contrast to what our world calls for in its leaders. We want people in charge, people who no longer wrestle with sin and finances and anxiety. We do not mind if they wrestled in a former time, but we want our leaders to be able to say “this was my struggle” and never “this is my struggle.”

When do pastors become not weak? When in their lifetimes will they be able to say “I no longer struggle with sin. I beat it and you can beat it too”? Is that what the Bible teaches? No, it is not. It teaches that we have turned from sin and no longer live in it. It does not teach that we no longer sin at all.

The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace and that without a good daily dose of it there are no believers, pastors, elders, deacons and others, who will not fall into horrible life threatening, church destroying sin. What we need in leaders is not men who give the impression that sin used to be a problem, but men who can say “I am weak but He is strong. Today I did not fall because I was hiding in Him. I made use of the resources He provides so that I would remain faithful. I was in the Bible, I prayed, I enjoyed the fellowship of some other saints of God. Follow me as I follow Christ.”

People who go to their pastors for help and wisdom and counsel are better helped by a man who knows that he is weak; beset with weakness, and yet remains faithful and can say that faith has been his daily victory that has overcome the world’s pull on him today. The pressure that the contemporary church puts on its leaders to be more than common men is a travesty. Know that yours is a man with a calling form God to demonstrate the power of God to you on a daily basis.

His message from the Word is not “Through Jesus I overcame the world”. It is, rather, “Through Jesus, I am daily overcoming the world. Come and overcome it with me. I am weak, just like you. God is strong enough for all of us. Come and I will help you.” Only Jesus is not weak. Only Jesus never succumbed at all. Pray for your leaders today. They are at the front of the line taking the first of the shots from the evil one. The good ones want to defend their people. You shouldn’t follow him if he is not under attack from the enemy. But you also should not abandon him on the battlefield when in his work to defend his flock, he takes a blow. There are some sins that will disqualify him from being a pastor at all. But he will never be perfect. He is weak. He must hang on to the flawless Saviour and that is why he can help you.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV)

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. [15] 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. [16] 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.

Sympathy. The need for it is not always a matter of self pity and self centeredness and lack of faith. There are far too many Christians, many of them Christian leaders, who teach that Christianity is absent of the need for understanding from others. Loneliness, it is said, is a sin. Adam, sinless and walking with God, looked for a companion like himself and in this sinless state God made the pronouncement that something was not good. What wasn’t good was that the man was alone.

Not good. Not because he couldn’t reproduce. But because he needed someone like himself with whom he could communicate, explore the world God had put them in, enjoy God together. It was not good that Adam was alone.

Sympathy, understanding, empathy. These are qualities that we all need to have communicated to us by others; other humans who have experienced the pain and loneliness that are a part of life. Some will think that this is saying that God is insufficient. But it is God who made us for human companionship. He is the One who said “this aloneness is not good”.

It is such a reality to us that if we only had a God who had never been human we could not go to Him and know that He felt everything that we feel. God was here. He was here in the flesh as a real human being with pain, and suffering and disappointments and frustrations. He was tempted. He was pulled by nothing inside Him to commit sin. He was tempted sexually. He was tempted to cheat the contractor He worked for. He was tempted to over drink. He was tempted just like we are in every respect – mentally, emotionally, physically, spirituality – without ever sinning. He was here. He knows what it is like. He is here now for those who need Him.

Your need for understanding and sympathy and empathy and help is not wrong (although it can be developed into something that is wrong). It is human. When you pray in the face of temptation and think that this time you are not going to be able to withstand the pressure. When you get discouraged that once again the claws of the evil one have dug in to draw you away from God. When the fatigue of having to fight one more spiritual battle seems to be winning the day – remember – you have a great high priest, THE Great High Priest, who was tempted in every way – just like you. The temptations were relentless, continuous, constant and powerful. He knows what you are going through. And He never gave in to it. He is there for you. He has died for you. He has gone into heaven and pleads His merits on your behalf. You have One who intercedes for you. You can go to Him with confidence – not because you are so bold or deserving, but because He is so loving and powerful and faithful to His commitment to you. You can go to Him and find help.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV)- 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. [15] 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. [16] 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.

The work of the high priest on the Day of Atonement was to enter into the holy of holies with blood from the sacrifice and sprinkle it on the mercy seat to make atonement for the sins of the people (Leviticus 16). Only the high priest could ever enter the holy of holies and then only once a year.

Jesus Christ is our high priest. He made the sacrifice of Himself and entered into the holy of holies and presented the offering to God. God accepted it and now there is forgiveness. The high priest entered every year. Jesus has entered once and for all and there is now no need of sacrifice for sin. His one sacrifice did for eternity what thousands of Day of Atonement sacrifices were not able to do: atone for sin perfectly, finally and victoriously.

There is no place for priests in the sense of offering sacrifice for sin, in the New Testament church. Jesus is the priest. This text is careful to point out that Jesus is not just another high priest. He is the great high priest. The word “great” is never used of any priest in the Old Testament economy. Jesus alone is the GREAT high priest. It tells us that he is better than any other priest. He is not just a high priest. He is a great one. He is superior to all other priests including the high priests and even Aaron himself.

The point being made here is that our access to God is only as good as the One who enables it to happen. Since we have a great high priest we can come into God’s presence with confidence. How Christians need to realize this more and more! Our access to God is not a matter of the strength of our faith or the perfections of our efforts to obey God.

Our ability to enter into the presence of God is based upon the excellencies of the One who is our priest. How excellent is Christ? Believers can stop having confidence to enter into the presence of God when Jesus ceases to be excellent and that will never happen. If you are His then you can go to God with confidence. What gives anyone the right to come into the presence of God with prayers that he can expect to be heard? Jesus Christ can and does. You can go to God without fear of rejection if Jesus is truly your great high priest. What a glory this is! I can approach God with confidence until Jesus ceases to be the great high priest who has offered up Himself on my behalf. When will that be? It will never be. I can enter into the presence of God with confidence for all eternity.