My sermon from 10/2/11AM is online. The sermon was entitled Better Ministry and was out of Hebrews 8:6-13. This section of Scripture, which included the longest quote of the OT in the NT, pointed us to the ways in which Jesus’ ministry was better than the old covenant way of relating to God, since it was built on relationship and offered forgiveness for sins.
I trust it will help you to rest in the final work of Jesus alone for your sanity, but deeper, for your relating to God.
This coming Lord’s day, we plan to look at Hebrews 8:6-13. It is an amazing picture of seeing just how beautiful our relationship with God through Christ looks. Here’s a couple of gems from Pete O’Brien
So Jesus’ role as mediator is not in a strict sense that of an arbiter or intermediary of a bilateral agreement. The terms of the covenant are not in dispute or up for discussion, so that Jesus has to act as a mediator by bringing the two parties together to hammer out an agreement. He is an agent, or delegate invested with divine authority in God’s settlement, which Jesus realizes and guarantees. (p.292)
One benefit of the new covenant is that we know God and again, O’Brien writes:
To know God is to recognize Him, to trust Him, and to obey Him. (p.300)
I hope to see you this coming Lord’s day as we relish in these and other glorious truths so that Christ is seen as the glorious Savior that He is.
Yes, my sermon from 9/25/11AM entitled In Heaven from Hebrews 8:1-5 is now online and yes, it did talk about the reality of heaven. It seems the writer of Hebrews is bent on encouraging our perseverance, so he urges us to consider our present in light of eternity, or, specifically, in light of the reality wherein Christ serves. I hope the sermon was encouraging.
In the evening, my small group looked at the lack of gratitude we exhibit in the church and sought to fought that in the Gospel. I need to update my Facebook status accordingly: “God, thank you for the gift of Facebook and how it allows me to stay in touch with so many friends. Thank you also for the trials that come when they change things, knowing that you are working on my character through it.” Something like this should be our heart in everything.
My sermon from 9/11/11 is online. It was from Hebrews 7:20-28 and entitled Simply The Best. God had engraven on our hearts a desire to live for ultimate realities. This is why we tune in to finales of reality shows and championship contests in sporting events. We love the know the best. And, in the case of Jesus, we have one who is the best. There are no denying His amazing qualifications based on what we’ve seen in Hebrews. I hope this message urges you to look to Christ.
This coming Lord’s Day, Lord willing, we will gather for worship. New Sunday School classes begin for adults at 9AM (Ron on Genesis and Conor leading R.C. Sproul’s Holiness of God study). In the evening, we will meet in small groups and continue to work through Bridges’ book, Respectable Sins.
In the AM, the sermon will wrap up Hebrews 7:20-28 and really leave Melchizedek in the rear view, establishing the supremacy of Jesus. I can’t do much better than quote what this soaring passage says about Jesus:
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
Join me, then, this coming Lord’s day as we celebrate the supremacy of Jesus.
Well, Sunday is complete and Monday Labor Day holiday has begun. We had a great morning yesterday singing about Jesus’ finished work, fellowshipping together and looking at Hebrews 7:11-19 in a sermon entitled A Better Priest. The sermon sought to show reasons why Jesus is a better high priest than the old order of Aaronic priests. It was pretty compelling that because of the power of Jesus’ indestructible life and the better hope He gives in our drawing near to God that He is better hands down.
I hope your Lord’s day was rich and rewarding as you sought the Lord. Blessings to you this week.
Maybe you’ve heard of the game 5 steps to Kevin Bacon, which traces a journey of movies starring Bacon back to any actor in Hollywood. Well, this Sunday, Lord-willing, we are going to be looking at some steps that get back to Jesus and how He is a better priest that what is found in the Levitical law. The passage we intend to look at is Hebrews 7:11-19. The progression of steps are highlighted by William Lane in his book on Hebrews:
(11-12) – prophecy about a new priesthood demonstrated the old was insufficient (13-14) – prophecy of Psalm 110:4 was Jesus coming to be our High Priest (15-17) – the new priest is superior in quality to Levitical priests (18-19) – Levitical priesthood and old Law was set aside by a new and better hope based on superior quality of high priest
Now, with all of these parts of the book of Hebrews, we need to expend some mental energy to understand the argument, but, as we do, we will find that the picture it gives us of our Lord and Savior is a resplendently brilliant one. Therefore, come expecting God to move through His Word to glorify the Son, our Better High Priest.
Happy Monday everyone. Hope you all are doing well as we get off and running on another week. I thought we had a tremendous Lord’s Day yesterday. God was so gracious to move and act in many ways and I continue to stand in awe of what we are learning about Him (and Jesus) through the book of Hebrews. Yesterday’s sermon, Pointer, from Hebrews 7:1-10 tried to hop on a trajectory or course that pointed us to Jesus as the main theme of the Bible. As I mentioned in the introduction, I wanted to dazzle everyone with Jesus’ character and superiority. I hope you found yourself delighting in Him. In the evening, we had great time in small groups, continuing to work our way through Jerry Bridges book Respectable Sins. My group looked, specifically, at the chapter on Anxiety, Worry and Frustration, which proved to be very fruitful for good Gospel application. Hope you have a blessed week!
This coming Lord’s Day, we hope to start unpacking who this Melchizedek guy is and the significance he has for our understanding Jesus as our Great High Priest. I love what William Lane says about this chapter:
The value of Hebrews is that certain aspects of Jesus’ high priestly ministry are set forth and developed for the first time in a manner which enables us to understand the significance of describing Jesus as priest, or high priest. In fact the heart of the sermon, which extends from Hebrews 7:1-10:18, is devoted to clarifying the high priestly office of Jesus.
Most Christians would affirm the three-fold offices of Jesus: prophet, priest and king. In the person of Melchizedek, we get a picture of the priestly king work of Jesus. For that reason alone, I hope you are encouraged to come and sink in the truth that God has for us in Hebrews 7. And this coming Lord’s day, as we look at Hebrews 7:1-10, I hope your heart wells up in praise for God’s good revelation to you.
My sermon from 8/21/11 entitled Promise from Hebrews 6:13-20 is online. It was a great morning for us to see the hope that is ours in Christ. The picture of Christ being our anchor for today and having our security tied to His work for us in the holy place behind the veil was pretty stunning. I hope the reality of this helps you live this week.
In the evening, we had an encouraging report from our Immanuel Mission Team (they traveled to Arizona from July 31-August 7. Here’s the video from the Team:
All in all, we had a tremendous and amazing Lord’s Day and I hope you were blessed as well.