Jesus Sacrificed His Life So We Could Live Forever With Him
Rev. {14:14} And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud [one] sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
14:15} And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
{14:16} And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
{14:17} And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
{14:18} And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
{14:19} And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast [it] into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
{14:20} And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space
of a thousand [and] six hundred furlongs.
*******
We've said it before and we have to say it again, there are two sides to life.
Good and Evil.
We will number among one or the other.
The Good side is God's side and when the end of the world is come- when the harvest is ripe those that are God's will be harvested by Him, brought into Him, taken to Him as something special.
When we sow gardens we watch them and wait for the harvest of whatever we've planted. God has sown this harvest and He watches, He waits for the time of the harvest. When the harvest of humanity is ripe- when man has become all they can become and the time for the harvest arrives there will be a reaping. For every crop sown there is a harvest. Will every seed sprout? No. Will every seed reach full growth? No. Will the plot of land the harvest was sown upon stay free of weeds? Will bad seeds producing a weak, unacceptable fruit be kept from this harvest? If one comes to finally harvest what they've sown they look for any weak, sickly fruit and they don't accept them into the harvest- they reject the weeds that have grown alongside the good plants. It is at harvest time the result is fully known. All the plants are brought up so the ground is cleared, the good plants are kept all the bad plants and the unacceptable plants are tossed into the garbage, the fire, the wine press- they're destroyed.
This analogy is correct and given to us for a reason.
We are the plants to be harvested.
We are either good or bad, in this harvest there is nothing that will be considered so-so, no place at all for anything but the acceptable and unacceptable.
Jesus will come again and take His people home with Him. The rest will be destroyed. Those not with God, those not receiving the love of God that they might be saved will be lost. We know He's coming for us.
Jesus came and died on that cross for us so He could return and take us home with Him. He died to save us. He died to give us hope of a future in Him, with Him, for Him.
If I were going to make a sacrifice in my life so someone could reap the benefits of that sacrifice, I am not making that sacrifice without a reason. I hope and expect there to be those who will take advantage of the opportunity my sacrifice affords them.
You've sacrificed before haven't you? Perhaps you sacrificed a night out so you could help another, is your sacrifice worth it if the other refuses your help? It's worth it to your own integrity, but you would not have made that sacrifice if you didn't think it would result in something, right?
Sacrifices are made for reasons and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for a reason too. We cannot talk of Jesus' love without realizing that His love meant that He died to save us. Save us for what? For an eternity with Him. He promised when he walked the earth before He was sacrificed, that he would come again.
John {14:3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also
Jesus died so we could live. Jesus died so we could live forever with Him. In love with Him we seek to be ready for Him when He returns as countless people have done throughout the ages. Countless people looked for His return. It is prophesized that among those- the last of God's people- many will be lukewarm, that zeal for Christ will be gone. We've more than reached that age when God's people have come to a place where they no longer have a fire for the message Jesus brought with Him, the message He lived and died for. Christ is coming again! He is, and while many stay in a place where they are neither hot nor cold, we can't be among them! We must have a fire, a zeal for God. We must have a fiery heat that is alive for Christ and His returning.
May God help us to be among those harvested as Christ's. May we become on fire for Him, our zeal scorching hot as we await His return! Christ lived and died for us and He lives again forever for us. By His mercy, by His grace, may we live for Him and be acceptable to Him, through Him our Righteousness.
Amen.
7/12/10
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
BEWARE. We know what this means- watch out, be careful. We have to beware of what? MAN. We have to beware of other people spoiling us. Not spoiling us in the way of giving us too much, but rather spoiling us for Christ, making us no good as followers of Christ. And others can spoil us through their PHILOSOPHIES, and through their VAIN DECEITS. Philosophies.
phi·los·o·phy
[fi-los-uh-fee]
Show IPA
–noun, plural -phies.
1.
the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.
2.
any of the three branches, namely natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and metaphysical philosophy, that are accepted as composing this study.
3.
a system of philosophical doctrine: the philosophy of Spinoza.
4.
the critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a particular branch of knowledge, esp. with a view to improving or reconstituting them: the philosophy of science.
5.
a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs.
6.
a philosophical attitude, as one of composure and calm in the presence of troubles or annoyances.
Men's philosophies - Men's truths, men's principles, men's knowledge, men's conduct.
vain
[veyn]
Show IPA
–adjective, -er, -est.
1.
excessively proud of or concerned about one's own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.; conceited: a vain dandy.
2.
proceeding from or showing personal vanity: vain remarks.
3.
ineffectual or unsuccessful; futile: a vain effort.
4.
without real significance, value, or importance; baseless or worthless: vain pageantry; vain display.
5.
Archaic . senseless or foolish.
—Idiom
6.
in vain,
a.
without effect or avail; to no purpose: to apologize in vain.
b.
in an improper or irreverent manner: to take God's name in vain.
Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vain>
de·ceit
[dih-seet]
Show IPA
–noun
1.
the act or practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating: Once she exposed their deceit, no one ever trusted them again.
2.
an act or device intended to deceive; trick; stratagem.
3.
the quality of being deceitful; duplicity; falseness: a man full of deceit.
Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deceits>
Men's foolish duplicity. Men's foolish trickery.
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Beware of others- beware of their traditions, their philosophies, their falseness, their tricks. People get so puffed up with their own ideas about things. They interpret things one way and insist it's the right way. They get their minds clouded with so much that has nothing to do with our Savior. We have to be very careful of others leading us down their road of deceit. The thing is, they won't even realize they are being deceitful most times. People will get caught up in their own *beliefs* and forget that it's God's beliefs we are to adhere to, not anyone else's. People will say everything is interpreted differently and yet God will not contradict Himself.
As we receive Jesus we have to WALK in Him.
We have to be ROOTED and BUILT up in Him.
We have to be STABLISHED in the FAITH.
We have to abound with THANKSGIVING!
Only when we are walking, rooted, built, stablished in the faith and giving thanks all in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior are we safe. We have to LOOK to HIM and ONLY HIM! We can help each other but we can't look to each other, walking in the faith of one another. Men throughout time have gone astray when they look to other men for the answers. The answers are found in Christ and a personal relationship with Him. If we don't have a personal walk with Christ then we will be deceived. Make no mistake right now there are many people who want followers, many people who want you to join their organizations, many people who like nothing better than to have a fellow believer in THEIR beliefs. Our standard has to be God's Word and God's Word only and no other.
May the grace of God cover us all. May we walk in Him and only in Him. Thank you Lord for the blessing of You, of Your love, Your sacrifice. By Your mercy, through Your righteousness now and forever!
Amen.
7.12.11
Day of
Atonements
An atonement for
the holy sanctuary.
An atonement for
the tabernacle of the congregation.
An atonement for
the altar.
An atonement for
the priests and all the people of the congregation.
Dual aspect- a day of judgment and a day of atoning.
Let's look at
Hebrews, a New Testament book that talks about our High Priest in the heavenly
sanctuary. We've already
discussed the need of a heavenly sanctuary- a purposeful need- not a façade. God
does not use facades. God does not erect meaningless edifices. God does not and
has never had mankind build meaningless things. Every single altar God directed
to be built was for a purpose. The Sanctuary God directed to be built was for a
purpose. Everything in the Sanctuary had a purpose. Never did God direct that
something be built without purpose. The ark was built for a purpose and that
purpose was to preserve mankind. The Sanctuary was built for a purpose and that
was built after what was SEEN in heaven. Just as the earthly Sanctuary was
built for a purpose, the Heavenly Sanctuary existed for a purpose.
The Heavenly Sanctuary wasn't created to 'house God's presence'
exclusively any more than the earthly Sanctuary was created for that sole
purpose. Read this…
Solomon
praying-
1Ki 8:26 And now, O God of Israel, let thy word,
I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.
1Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth?
behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less
this house that I have builded?
1Ki 8:28 Yet have thou respect unto the prayer
of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry
and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:
1Ki 8:29 That thine eyes may be open toward this
house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name
shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall
make toward this place.
But will God
indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, the
heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.
Such amazing
words!
Why then create a
heavenly sanctuary? It was all part of the entire plan of salvation that we can
barely grasp in our finite, sin-filled states.
So many people
let their thinking stop at the Cross, many others extend that a little bit to
the Resurrection beyond the Cross, and still others allow themselves to think
about the Ascension after the Resurrection beyond the Cross, but MOST people
stop there at the Ascension. They've planted the risen Savior there on a throne
and have kept Him there immobile in fact to never move again until He
returns. They've made the
Savior a figurehead placing Him on a pedestal and in doing so they've stopped
thinking about what might be entailed in a continued work.
Yet truthfully in the example given to us of the earthly sanctuary it
took a priest to make the sacrifice after the person confessed their sins onto
that sacrifice, then after the sacrifice was killed an atonement was made. Then,
as we are studying, once a year there was one day for special atonements. Why do we find it easy to imagine Jesus
as our Sacrifice, yet harder to understand Jesus as our High Priest, acting as
our High Priest?
Let's go to the
book of Hebrews now and read a bit…
Heb 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken
this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
Heb 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the
true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
We have a High
Priest in Heaven.
A MINISTER of the
SANCTUARY and the TRUE TABERNACLE, which the LORD PITCHED and NOT MAN.
Minister-- Greek
Definition
leitourgos
li-toorg-os'
From a derivative
of G2992 and G2041; a public servant, that is, a functionary in the Temple or
Gospel, or (generally) a worshipper (of God) or benefactor (of man): - minister
(-ed).
A functionary in
the Temple.
A public
servant.
Our Great High
Priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ risen from the dead was resurrected to
life and after a brief period of time upon earth left to minister in the
heavenly sanctuary!
Daniel tells us
that after 2300 days (years) the sanctuary shall be cleansed, in 1844 the
cleansing began. This is a heavenly sanctuary cleansing beyond a doubt because
in 1844 the earthly sanctuary was non-existent and without an earthly sanctuary
to cleanse it truly could mean only one thing- our Heavenly High Priest began a
new phase of His ministering in the Heavenly Sanctuary bringing mankind one step
still closer to the end of all sin, to the destruction of this earth as we know
it and the ushering in of the amazing new world, the new life in Christ. Remember the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in
the beginning of the book of Daniel- the over all picture? Remember the ultimate
defeat of all earthly kingdoms and the ushering in of the kingdom of God? It
WILL happen. It has been
predicted and everything that is predicted will come to pass and SO MUCH of it
already has come to pass. We cannot doubt that we are living in the end of the
end so to speak. We cannot for one moment believe that things predicted will NOT
come to pass. These weren't conditional prophecies.
These are concrete prophecies and they will happen- every single one of
them.
Over the last 27
prophecy studies we've been able to piece things together brilliantly with
history and prophecy. We studied our way through to a prophecy that spans 2300
years! We can understand that Christ our High Priest is ministering in the
Heavenly Sanctuary and we know when that ministry is completed He will come for
us.
As we studied the
earthly day of atonement we know there are different phases throughout that day
which needed to be accomplished. As it was on earth- it is in heaven. We'll talk more about that tomorrow by
the grace of our God.
We need His
everlasting love and guidance, His forgiveness, His righteousness all that
stems from His love towards us. This is a desperate need, a very desperate
need. May we be blessed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, able to see and
understand His will, able to watch and pray as He would have us do as we look
for His return.
In His amazing
love!
Amen.
14:15} And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
{14:16} And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
{14:17} And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
{14:18} And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
{14:19} And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast [it] into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
{14:20} And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space
of a thousand [and] six hundred furlongs.
*******
We've said it before and we have to say it again, there are two sides to life.
Good and Evil.
We will number among one or the other.
The Good side is God's side and when the end of the world is come- when the harvest is ripe those that are God's will be harvested by Him, brought into Him, taken to Him as something special.
When we sow gardens we watch them and wait for the harvest of whatever we've planted. God has sown this harvest and He watches, He waits for the time of the harvest. When the harvest of humanity is ripe- when man has become all they can become and the time for the harvest arrives there will be a reaping. For every crop sown there is a harvest. Will every seed sprout? No. Will every seed reach full growth? No. Will the plot of land the harvest was sown upon stay free of weeds? Will bad seeds producing a weak, unacceptable fruit be kept from this harvest? If one comes to finally harvest what they've sown they look for any weak, sickly fruit and they don't accept them into the harvest- they reject the weeds that have grown alongside the good plants. It is at harvest time the result is fully known. All the plants are brought up so the ground is cleared, the good plants are kept all the bad plants and the unacceptable plants are tossed into the garbage, the fire, the wine press- they're destroyed.
This analogy is correct and given to us for a reason.
We are the plants to be harvested.
We are either good or bad, in this harvest there is nothing that will be considered so-so, no place at all for anything but the acceptable and unacceptable.
Jesus will come again and take His people home with Him. The rest will be destroyed. Those not with God, those not receiving the love of God that they might be saved will be lost. We know He's coming for us.
Jesus came and died on that cross for us so He could return and take us home with Him. He died to save us. He died to give us hope of a future in Him, with Him, for Him.
If I were going to make a sacrifice in my life so someone could reap the benefits of that sacrifice, I am not making that sacrifice without a reason. I hope and expect there to be those who will take advantage of the opportunity my sacrifice affords them.
You've sacrificed before haven't you? Perhaps you sacrificed a night out so you could help another, is your sacrifice worth it if the other refuses your help? It's worth it to your own integrity, but you would not have made that sacrifice if you didn't think it would result in something, right?
Sacrifices are made for reasons and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for a reason too. We cannot talk of Jesus' love without realizing that His love meant that He died to save us. Save us for what? For an eternity with Him. He promised when he walked the earth before He was sacrificed, that he would come again.
John {14:3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also
Jesus died so we could live. Jesus died so we could live forever with Him. In love with Him we seek to be ready for Him when He returns as countless people have done throughout the ages. Countless people looked for His return. It is prophesized that among those- the last of God's people- many will be lukewarm, that zeal for Christ will be gone. We've more than reached that age when God's people have come to a place where they no longer have a fire for the message Jesus brought with Him, the message He lived and died for. Christ is coming again! He is, and while many stay in a place where they are neither hot nor cold, we can't be among them! We must have a fire, a zeal for God. We must have a fiery heat that is alive for Christ and His returning.
May God help us to be among those harvested as Christ's. May we become on fire for Him, our zeal scorching hot as we await His return! Christ lived and died for us and He lives again forever for us. By His mercy, by His grace, may we live for Him and be acceptable to Him, through Him our Righteousness.
Amen.
7/12/10
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
BEWARE. We know what this means- watch out, be careful. We have to beware of what? MAN. We have to beware of other people spoiling us. Not spoiling us in the way of giving us too much, but rather spoiling us for Christ, making us no good as followers of Christ. And others can spoil us through their PHILOSOPHIES, and through their VAIN DECEITS. Philosophies.
phi·los·o·phy
[fi-los-uh-fee]
Show IPA
–noun, plural -phies.
1.
the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.
2.
any of the three branches, namely natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and metaphysical philosophy, that are accepted as composing this study.
3.
a system of philosophical doctrine: the philosophy of Spinoza.
4.
the critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a particular branch of knowledge, esp. with a view to improving or reconstituting them: the philosophy of science.
5.
a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs.
6.
a philosophical attitude, as one of composure and calm in the presence of troubles or annoyances.
Men's philosophies - Men's truths, men's principles, men's knowledge, men's conduct.
vain
[veyn]
Show IPA
–adjective, -er, -est.
1.
excessively proud of or concerned about one's own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.; conceited: a vain dandy.
2.
proceeding from or showing personal vanity: vain remarks.
3.
ineffectual or unsuccessful; futile: a vain effort.
4.
without real significance, value, or importance; baseless or worthless: vain pageantry; vain display.
5.
Archaic . senseless or foolish.
—Idiom
6.
in vain,
a.
without effect or avail; to no purpose: to apologize in vain.
b.
in an improper or irreverent manner: to take God's name in vain.
Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vain>
de·ceit
[dih-seet]
Show IPA
–noun
1.
the act or practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating: Once she exposed their deceit, no one ever trusted them again.
2.
an act or device intended to deceive; trick; stratagem.
3.
the quality of being deceitful; duplicity; falseness: a man full of deceit.
Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deceits>
Men's foolish duplicity. Men's foolish trickery.
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Beware of others- beware of their traditions, their philosophies, their falseness, their tricks. People get so puffed up with their own ideas about things. They interpret things one way and insist it's the right way. They get their minds clouded with so much that has nothing to do with our Savior. We have to be very careful of others leading us down their road of deceit. The thing is, they won't even realize they are being deceitful most times. People will get caught up in their own *beliefs* and forget that it's God's beliefs we are to adhere to, not anyone else's. People will say everything is interpreted differently and yet God will not contradict Himself.
As we receive Jesus we have to WALK in Him.
We have to be ROOTED and BUILT up in Him.
We have to be STABLISHED in the FAITH.
We have to abound with THANKSGIVING!
Only when we are walking, rooted, built, stablished in the faith and giving thanks all in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior are we safe. We have to LOOK to HIM and ONLY HIM! We can help each other but we can't look to each other, walking in the faith of one another. Men throughout time have gone astray when they look to other men for the answers. The answers are found in Christ and a personal relationship with Him. If we don't have a personal walk with Christ then we will be deceived. Make no mistake right now there are many people who want followers, many people who want you to join their organizations, many people who like nothing better than to have a fellow believer in THEIR beliefs. Our standard has to be God's Word and God's Word only and no other.
May the grace of God cover us all. May we walk in Him and only in Him. Thank you Lord for the blessing of You, of Your love, Your sacrifice. By Your mercy, through Your righteousness now and forever!
Amen.
7.12.11
Day of
Atonements
An atonement for
the holy sanctuary.
An atonement for
the tabernacle of the congregation.
An atonement for
the altar.
An atonement for
the priests and all the people of the congregation.
Dual aspect- a day of judgment and a day of atoning.
Let's look at
Hebrews, a New Testament book that talks about our High Priest in the heavenly
sanctuary. We've already
discussed the need of a heavenly sanctuary- a purposeful need- not a façade. God
does not use facades. God does not erect meaningless edifices. God does not and
has never had mankind build meaningless things. Every single altar God directed
to be built was for a purpose. The Sanctuary God directed to be built was for a
purpose. Everything in the Sanctuary had a purpose. Never did God direct that
something be built without purpose. The ark was built for a purpose and that
purpose was to preserve mankind. The Sanctuary was built for a purpose and that
was built after what was SEEN in heaven. Just as the earthly Sanctuary was
built for a purpose, the Heavenly Sanctuary existed for a purpose.
The Heavenly Sanctuary wasn't created to 'house God's presence'
exclusively any more than the earthly Sanctuary was created for that sole
purpose. Read this…
Solomon
praying-
1Ki 8:26 And now, O God of Israel, let thy word,
I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.
1Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth?
behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less
this house that I have builded?
1Ki 8:28 Yet have thou respect unto the prayer
of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry
and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:
1Ki 8:29 That thine eyes may be open toward this
house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name
shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall
make toward this place.
But will God
indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, the
heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.
Such amazing
words!
Why then create a
heavenly sanctuary? It was all part of the entire plan of salvation that we can
barely grasp in our finite, sin-filled states.
So many people
let their thinking stop at the Cross, many others extend that a little bit to
the Resurrection beyond the Cross, and still others allow themselves to think
about the Ascension after the Resurrection beyond the Cross, but MOST people
stop there at the Ascension. They've planted the risen Savior there on a throne
and have kept Him there immobile in fact to never move again until He
returns. They've made the
Savior a figurehead placing Him on a pedestal and in doing so they've stopped
thinking about what might be entailed in a continued work.
Yet truthfully in the example given to us of the earthly sanctuary it
took a priest to make the sacrifice after the person confessed their sins onto
that sacrifice, then after the sacrifice was killed an atonement was made. Then,
as we are studying, once a year there was one day for special atonements. Why do we find it easy to imagine Jesus
as our Sacrifice, yet harder to understand Jesus as our High Priest, acting as
our High Priest?
Let's go to the
book of Hebrews now and read a bit…
Heb 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken
this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
Heb 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the
true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
We have a High
Priest in Heaven.
A MINISTER of the
SANCTUARY and the TRUE TABERNACLE, which the LORD PITCHED and NOT MAN.
Minister-- Greek
Definition
leitourgos
li-toorg-os'
From a derivative
of G2992 and G2041; a public servant, that is, a functionary in the Temple or
Gospel, or (generally) a worshipper (of God) or benefactor (of man): - minister
(-ed).
A functionary in
the Temple.
A public
servant.
Our Great High
Priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ risen from the dead was resurrected to
life and after a brief period of time upon earth left to minister in the
heavenly sanctuary!
Daniel tells us
that after 2300 days (years) the sanctuary shall be cleansed, in 1844 the
cleansing began. This is a heavenly sanctuary cleansing beyond a doubt because
in 1844 the earthly sanctuary was non-existent and without an earthly sanctuary
to cleanse it truly could mean only one thing- our Heavenly High Priest began a
new phase of His ministering in the Heavenly Sanctuary bringing mankind one step
still closer to the end of all sin, to the destruction of this earth as we know
it and the ushering in of the amazing new world, the new life in Christ. Remember the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in
the beginning of the book of Daniel- the over all picture? Remember the ultimate
defeat of all earthly kingdoms and the ushering in of the kingdom of God? It
WILL happen. It has been
predicted and everything that is predicted will come to pass and SO MUCH of it
already has come to pass. We cannot doubt that we are living in the end of the
end so to speak. We cannot for one moment believe that things predicted will NOT
come to pass. These weren't conditional prophecies.
These are concrete prophecies and they will happen- every single one of
them.
Over the last 27
prophecy studies we've been able to piece things together brilliantly with
history and prophecy. We studied our way through to a prophecy that spans 2300
years! We can understand that Christ our High Priest is ministering in the
Heavenly Sanctuary and we know when that ministry is completed He will come for
us.
As we studied the
earthly day of atonement we know there are different phases throughout that day
which needed to be accomplished. As it was on earth- it is in heaven. We'll talk more about that tomorrow by
the grace of our God.
We need His
everlasting love and guidance, His forgiveness, His righteousness all that
stems from His love towards us. This is a desperate need, a very desperate
need. May we be blessed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, able to see and
understand His will, able to watch and pray as He would have us do as we look
for His return.
In His amazing
love!
Amen.