WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.360 Please turn back to our reading in Hebrews chapter 7. 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:09.919 I'll read again verses 23 to 25. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:15.880 We're going to be thinking about a theme today, but we'll be beginning here. 00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:19.320 Hebrews 7 at 23. 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:24.199 The former priests were many a number because they were prevented by death from continuing 00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:25.960 in office. 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:31.520 But he, Jesus, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:38.480 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:43.679 he always lives to make intercession for them. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:55.719 So in this first Sunday of a new year, as we think about hope for a new year, I want 00:00:55.719 --> 00:01:05.239 to focus your attention on one key truth in the book of Hebrews, the continuing priesthood 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:09.599 of Jesus exalted in heaven. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:16.799 Now, priests were called by God throughout the Bible to be intermediaries. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:23.359 They acted on behalf of human beings before God. 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:29.480 Of course, all that was looking to the great priest who would come, our great high priest, 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:38.400 Jesus, the God-man, the unique priest, both God and man, who is a priest who offers himself 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:43.280 as we read as a sacrifice for us. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:51.840 Now, the verses we've just read there distinguish Jesus from all the many priests who have gone 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:59.799 before, verse 23, because they were prevented by death from continuing office. 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:05.439 They had to be succeeded and succeeded and succeeded through the centuries by yet more 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:06.439 priests. 00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:15.240 He's different, because verse 24, the exalted Jesus in heaven holds his priesthood permanently 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.840 because he continues forever. 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:27.640 And so, the logic, verse 25, he can therefore guarantee complete and final salvation to those 00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:35.400 who come to God through him, because he's always alive and he's always active on their 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:41.159 behalf, as the text says, interceding for them. 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:49.199 Now, when we think about the priesthood of Jesus, we tend rightly to focus on what he 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:57.280 did on earth as the priest who suffered for us, who offered himself as a sacrifice for 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:00.039 our sins. 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:07.359 He has done that once and for all and forever, and that finality cannot be stressed often 00:03:07.359 --> 00:03:10.159 enough. 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:16.039 But Hebrews also is teaching us that his priesthood is not over. 00:03:16.039 --> 00:03:17.960 His suffering is over. 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:23.719 His sin-bearing is over, but his priesthood is not finished. 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:31.639 So if you're a Christian today, then Jesus is your priest today. 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:40.120 He's thinking about you today, and he's acting for you today, and that will be true every 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:44.719 single day of this year. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:52.520 So that, I hope, will be a message for us for 2018, for every single day, that Jesus 00:03:52.520 --> 00:04:02.000 is our great high priest, and that is true for every moment of every day of this year 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:03.960 and every year. 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:11.400 So the question is, what's he doing, and what does that mean for those who trust in him? 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:19.120 Now, it may be a bit of a risk to say that I want to highlight seven things, seven words 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:25.759 as we think about the present priesthood of Jesus, but we'll see how we get on, and we'll 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:29.879 certainly be finished 30 minutes from now. 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:38.360 So seven words, and we may accelerate through them as we get nearer the end. 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:43.920 The first word is presence. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:53.839 I want to highlight at the very beginning the sheer presence of exalted incarnate God 00:04:53.839 --> 00:05:07.159 in heaven, that Jesus is really there, and really there in the body as the God-man. 00:05:07.159 --> 00:05:13.719 Now the fact that Jesus is there is a wonderful thing to reflect on. 00:05:13.719 --> 00:05:21.199 The same Jesus who was here, the Jesus who took human nature here, and who lived and 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:29.199 died and rose again in this world, has ascended from this world and has gone to heaven. 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:37.639 And that's the great sign of his work being absolutely perfect and final and complete, 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:43.759 that he has been received by heaven, welcomed by heaven, and invited to sit at the right 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:48.399 hand of the majesty on high. 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:55.799 This begins, it's very first paragraph by saying he made purification for sins, and 00:05:55.799 --> 00:05:59.319 he sat down at the right hand. 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:05.120 So he's there as our triumphant high priest. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:12.679 The other priests had to stand, he brucees, every day and do their work, but he has finished 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:20.840 his work and he has returned to heaven and he sits at the right hand, that part of his 00:06:20.840 --> 00:06:23.360 work done. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:31.800 And so today we celebrate the fact that Jesus is our victorious high priest, present in 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:36.079 heaven at the right hand of God. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:43.359 Jesus has taken that journey from heaven, that sort of parabola journey where he came 00:06:43.359 --> 00:06:50.199 all the way down here in humiliation, and he has returned all the way up there in exaltation, 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:53.799 and there he is in glory forever. 00:06:53.799 --> 00:07:00.240 As he said, in his high priestly prayer, as we often call it, John 17, that he asked to 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:07.800 be invested with the glory that he had with the Father before the world was, and now he 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:18.920 has that glory as the God-man, victorious as our priest in heaven seated the work done. 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:25.800 But as we think about his presence there, his visible physical presence there, I want 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:33.240 to highlight something else too that I think is very important, and in relation to the 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:39.319 language of intercession at the end of verse 25 here in our text, he always lives to make 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:42.840 intercession for them. 00:07:42.840 --> 00:07:48.199 Now I believe that intercession means more than this, we'll come to that, but I believe 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:56.560 that part of the intercession of Jesus in heaven is simply his presence as the exalted 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:02.519 one who still bears the marks of a suffering in this world. 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:09.519 Remember that in the Gospels, we read it in Luke's Gospel, the risen Jesus in that body 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:14.719 that will never die still bears the marks of suffering. 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:21.440 In Luke he shows them his hands in his feet, in John he shows them his hands in his side, 00:08:21.440 --> 00:08:24.360 he still bears the wounds. 00:08:24.360 --> 00:08:33.360 And in the vision of Revelation 5, when John sees Jesus, the Lamb, standing by the throne, 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:40.720 he sees one who still bears the mark of slaughter as a lamb, though alive. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:48.560 So Jesus, I believe, still bears the marks of his suffering today, and I believe that 00:08:48.560 --> 00:08:53.879 he is the only one in heaven who will ever retain the marks of wounds they received in 00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:55.320 this world. 00:08:55.320 --> 00:09:03.800 You will not retain these wounds, psychological or spiritual or physical or in any other way, 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:11.959 but Jesus still bears the physical scars, and he is celebrated in heaven always worthy 00:09:11.959 --> 00:09:14.240 as the lamb who was slain. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:20.919 So I think that that presence in heaven of the living lamb who was slain, of the priest 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:27.359 who offered himself a sacrifice, of the one who still bears these scars, is part of his 00:09:27.359 --> 00:09:29.879 intercession in heaven. 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:37.840 The presence of, in a great poem by Edward Shilatua a century ago, the Jesus of the scars. 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:40.159 I love the language. 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:46.759 And the Jesus of the scars in heaven is a continual reminder in the Father's presence 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:49.360 of the victorious sacrifice of Calvary. 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:56.120 So there's a sense in which the physical presence of Jesus is an intercession. 00:09:56.120 --> 00:10:03.519 It's a visible prayer, a vivid and powerful and continual argument for the salvation of 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:08.399 all whom he has bought by his obedience and his wounds. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:17.560 So Jesus now appears in heaven victorious, and he appears in heaven with these marks 00:10:17.560 --> 00:10:24.960 on your behalf as the ultimate argument for your ultimate salvation. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:33.680 And it's true for every single day that Jesus is your high priest at the right hand, present 00:10:33.680 --> 00:10:35.440 in heaven. 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:40.600 Secondly, the word access. 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:47.519 Jesus our high priest gives you access to heaven. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:56.439 He brings you and your needs into the presence of God, and you have direct access to him 00:10:56.439 --> 00:10:59.159 as your high priest. 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:05.159 And you have continual access to heaven through your high priest. 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:12.840 I don't think it can be stressed enough that you and I have permanent access to the throne 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:19.399 of heaven because of our access to our high priest who is in heaven. 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:25.480 Now, in the Old Testament, the high priest could only enter the holy of holies once a 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:31.000 year on the day of atonement, no other day. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:35.840 And the other priests could never enter that very holy place. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:40.680 And the people were limited in their access to various courts of the temple. 00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:47.799 But when Jesus died, the veil of the holy of holies was torn in two from top to bottom 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:55.879 as a sign that the work was done and access was opened through his sacrifice. 00:11:55.879 --> 00:12:03.159 And Hebrews tells us that through Jesus, as our priest in heaven, we have a very special 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:10.120 direct access through him into the holy of holies above. 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:13.759 The heavenly holy of holies. 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:18.919 Listen to Hebrews 10, verse 19. 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:27.159 We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living 00:12:27.159 --> 00:12:32.799 way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh. 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:39.440 And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:44.320 heart in full assurance of faith. 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:50.880 We really do have access to heaven through our priest. 00:12:50.880 --> 00:12:56.440 In the language earlier in Hebrews at the end of chapter 4, it says, we have a great 00:12:56.440 --> 00:13:01.360 high priest who has passed through the heavens. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:09.200 Then the logic of that is, as the writer says, we can now with confidence draw near to the 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:17.320 throne of grace to find mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:24.920 You through your priest have direct access to heaven with all of your prayers. 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:34.200 I was saying to somebody here recently, I had been very frustrated, phoning about something, 00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:43.640 and I was on the phone for 50 minutes being told every few seconds, please be assured 00:13:43.640 --> 00:13:45.840 that your call is important to us. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:51.080 We're experiencing an unusually high level of calls at the moment, you know that. 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:55.920 You don't get that from heaven, please be assured your prayer is important to us. 00:13:55.920 --> 00:14:01.400 We're experiencing an awfully high volume of prayers at the moment, but you will be 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:07.120 dealt with as soon as the high priest is free to deal with you. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.039 But please go to our website. 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:14.039 We have Mary, we have angels, we have all kinds of other saints who may be able to help 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:15.439 with your particular problems. 00:14:15.439 --> 00:14:21.439 So please explore our website to see if there's some other way in which none of that. 00:14:21.439 --> 00:14:31.319 We have direct immediate access every moment of every day 24-7 to Jesus and through him 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:33.600 to all the resources of heaven. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:39.520 We are never left in a queue as we pray through our great high priest. 00:14:39.520 --> 00:14:42.120 We have access. 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:45.960 Third word is sympathy. 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:53.640 Sympathy, the fact that Jesus feels with us and fought us. 00:14:53.640 --> 00:14:58.040 The passage I just referred to, famous passage in the end of Hebrews 4 where it says we have 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:03.599 a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God has passed through the heavens. 00:15:03.599 --> 00:15:09.919 That reminds us of another glory of the priesthood of Jesus in terms of his human sympathy. 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:17.240 Verse 15 there says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:27.759 weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:29.799 That's very important to the writer to the Hebrews. 00:15:29.799 --> 00:15:34.960 He's mentioned the theme earlier in chapter 2, 17 and 18. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:40.600 He had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:45.960 and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:53.639 people, for because Jesus himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:56.039 are being tempted. 00:15:56.039 --> 00:16:04.639 Of course, that's a huge theme, the real humanity of Jesus and the fact that he retains that 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:05.639 humanity. 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:12.719 It's important to see that Hebrews is saying that his heavenly priesthood isn't just based 00:16:12.719 --> 00:16:19.559 on what he did at Calvary, though that's the fundamental, but it's based on his whole 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:25.319 human experience throughout his life in this world. 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:34.960 It's very important to me personally that I have a high priest who is still truly human 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:42.000 and who remembers what it's like to live in this world and to suffer and to be hungry 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:47.640 and to be thirsty and to be afraid and to know bereavement, and at last he knows what 00:16:47.640 --> 00:16:50.160 it is to taste death. 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:57.480 This has been through the gamut of human experience in this world, and he remembers that and he 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:05.359 sympathizes with us in all of our needs and struggles and temptations in our real experiences 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:06.759 in this world. 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:09.799 We do not have a detached savior. 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:15.079 We do not have somebody who got rid of his humanity when he left this world, but we have 00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:24.000 somebody who had become incarnate forever, truly human and who remembers and who sympathizes 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.919 with us in our struggles. 00:17:26.919 --> 00:17:33.279 That's true as well for every single day as you go through your trials and tribulations, 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:35.000 whatever they might be. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:42.039 As you come to God in prayer with your struggles, you're coming to a high priest who cannot 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:48.399 but be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, Hebrews is saying. 00:17:48.399 --> 00:17:58.480 He knows, he feels, he has empathy and sympathy beyond our imagining, and you can take anything 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:07.720 to Jesus, and Jesus will listen because Jesus has a heart for human beings because he is 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:13.200 a human being, sympathy. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.960 Fourthly prayer. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:21.360 Jesus, I believe, prays. 00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:24.000 Let's go back to verse 25 and chapter 7. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:33.279 I referred already to him making intercession for us, and many believe that that intercession 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:37.039 is just his presence. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:40.639 And I believe that it's more than just his presence. 00:18:40.639 --> 00:18:47.680 I believe even though people I've been reading over the last week or two who know a hundred 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:54.119 times more than I do, a million times more than I do about this, say it's just his presence, 00:18:54.119 --> 00:19:01.200 I find it very difficult to get away from the language of intercession that is so often 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:07.279 used for people to pray and request and ask. 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:12.279 Why would the language of intercession be used here and also towards the end of Romans 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:23.160 8 of Jesus if we're not meant to see that in some sense he actually does pray? 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:29.319 I'd be glad I don't have time today to go into the discussions people have had over 00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:37.200 many, many centuries about whether intercession means that Jesus actually prays. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:42.599 And as I say many I've been reading say, no, it's a nonsense to think that he prays 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:43.599 in heaven. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:49.480 He prayed on earth as our mediator, but he doesn't pray in heaven. 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:55.279 That would make him look weak, it would make the Father look unwilling, and anyway we're 00:19:55.279 --> 00:20:00.680 meant to imagine his lips moving terribly, terribly quickly as he prays vocally and 00:20:00.680 --> 00:20:01.680 verbally. 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:04.639 Well, no, I don't think we are. 00:20:04.639 --> 00:20:14.599 But Jesus who prayed as our mediator on earth, the point is this, he is still our mediator 00:20:14.599 --> 00:20:16.399 in heaven. 00:20:16.399 --> 00:20:21.200 He is still our go-between there in heaven. 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:25.759 And he goes on acting for us before the Father. 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:32.440 So it's not a lesser pleading with a greater, it's not the willing pleading with the unwilling, 00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:34.880 but it's God speaking to God. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:43.360 It's God the incarnate Son as our mediator speaking to God the Father on our behalf. 00:20:43.360 --> 00:20:50.200 Now I think that one of the very important things about this is that it reminds us of 00:20:50.200 --> 00:20:57.279 not just the sheer importance of prayer in God's economy of grace, that the God in whom 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:04.480 we believe has decided to act in response to prayer, and he acts in response still to 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:07.600 the prayers of Jesus. 00:21:07.600 --> 00:21:12.680 Now he's doing this, I believe, as the God-man of course. 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:20.880 He'll say, well, how can this human being, as man, hear our prayers and make our prayers 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:22.960 and pray other prayers of his own? 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:24.680 Well, he cannot. 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:26.880 But he's the God-man. 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:35.960 And in the mystery of divine communion and communication, he, Jesus, makes our needs known 00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:37.880 to the Father. 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:46.720 It's beyond our comprehension, I accept, but I believe Jesus prays for us as the God-man 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:56.080 in communion with the Father with all the omniscience and sympathy of his deity and 00:21:56.080 --> 00:22:04.080 all the exalted knowledge and love and sympathy of his humanity, that the God-man is communing 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:11.879 with the Father in a kind of prayer for me and for you and for all of his people and for 00:22:11.879 --> 00:22:18.279 all of our needs, all based in his own atoning work at Calvary. 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:25.519 And doing this, I think, according to the texts, in context, it's about his own people. 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:27.799 He prays for his own people. 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:32.119 He intercedes for those for whom he has paid the ultimate price. 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:38.679 And I believe he also prays for those who will be his people, who will come to know 00:22:38.679 --> 00:22:41.119 him in faith. 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:47.799 As in the High Priestley Prayer of John 17 and verse 20, I do not ask for these only, 00:22:47.799 --> 00:22:52.199 but also for those who will believe in me through their word. 00:22:52.199 --> 00:23:01.079 So he prays for his own, and he prays for every one of his own, no Christian, present, 00:23:01.079 --> 00:23:08.199 or to be a Christian is excluded from the communing with the Father of Jesus as he 00:23:08.199 --> 00:23:12.159 prays for us in heaven. 00:23:12.159 --> 00:23:17.759 Now some of you will want to talk about this afterwards because you don't quite think I've 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:19.519 got it right. 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:26.439 But I believe this with all my heart, and I know many of you find this to be the teaching 00:23:26.440 --> 00:23:34.519 of the Bible and also to be tremendously encouraging in your daily life, that Jesus prays for you 00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:36.400 when you're awake. 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:39.640 He prays for you when you're asleep. 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:45.200 He prays for you when you're walking with him closely, and he prays for you when you're 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:47.559 wandering away from him. 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:53.840 He's been praying for you from the moment you were conceived and before, and he will 00:23:53.839 --> 00:24:00.359 pray you at last into his presence in glory. 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:09.319 One theologian I was reading from three or four generations ago says this, it is a consoling 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:17.919 thought that Christ is praying for us even when we are negligent in our prayer life, 00:24:17.919 --> 00:24:23.079 that he is presenting to the Father those spiritual needs which were not present to 00:24:23.079 --> 00:24:29.879 our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers, and that he prays for our 00:24:29.879 --> 00:24:36.000 protection against the dangers of which we were not even conscious and against the enemies 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:41.679 which threaten us that we do not notice it. 00:24:41.679 --> 00:24:49.279 We are saved by the prayers of Jesus, and surely it's time for us to say thank you 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.559 for the prayers of Jesus. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:25:00.319 So Jesus prays, and let me just add this detail, the Holy Spirit prays too according 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:02.240 to Romans 8. 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:08.119 The other great text about the intercession of Jesus, we have Hebrews 7.25 and we have 00:25:08.119 --> 00:25:16.319 Romans 8.34 about Jesus who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:17.480 us. 00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:25.279 So Romans 8 says that Jesus intercedes for us, but a few verses earlier, 26 to 27 in 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:31.960 Romans 8, we read, likewise the Spirit helps on our weakness, for we do not know what to 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:38.240 pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:44.240 for words, and he who search his heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:50.240 Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:57.720 So that passage is saying that the Spirit intercedes in our hearts while Jesus intercedes 00:25:57.720 --> 00:25:59.319 in heaven. 00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:07.200 The Spirit prays in your heart with you and for you, and Jesus prays in heaven. 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:18.200 I hope this won't sound irreverent, but when we pray, we are part of a prayer triplet. 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:24.720 Many of you are in prayer triplets with two other human beings, but when we pray, if I'm 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:33.120 reading these texts correctly, when you pray on your own and you feel lonely in your prayer, 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:38.319 remember that you even then are part of a prayer triplet, as the Spirit prays in your 00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:48.199 heart and as Jesus is praying in heaven, you're never alone when you're praying on your own. 00:26:48.199 --> 00:26:49.679 The fifth word is offering. 00:26:49.679 --> 00:26:52.239 I better move on. 00:26:52.239 --> 00:26:54.399 Offering. 00:26:54.399 --> 00:26:57.839 Priests throughout the Bible offer things to God. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:02.599 They offer gifts and sacrifices to God. 00:27:02.599 --> 00:27:06.959 You couldn't be a priest without having something to offer. 00:27:06.959 --> 00:27:11.439 So Jesus has offered the final sacrifice. 00:27:11.439 --> 00:27:15.759 So what is he still offering in heaven? 00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:20.399 Well he's offering what we give him to offer. 00:27:20.399 --> 00:27:24.399 We bring, we are priests, that's another theme. 00:27:24.399 --> 00:27:25.799 We are priests. 00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:33.559 Every man and woman who's a Christian is a priest and we bring our offerings to God. 00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:42.159 We bring them to the high priest and he on our behalf offers them acceptably in heaven 00:27:42.159 --> 00:27:45.240 to God. 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:47.680 Think of praise, prayer and service. 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:50.000 He offers our praise. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:52.240 He sanctifies our praise. 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:58.000 He endows that praise on earth and he presents our praise in heaven. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:01.640 We always do everything we do, for example in church. 00:28:01.640 --> 00:28:04.960 We do it through Jesus. 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:09.519 So we praise through Jesus. 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:13.799 He's the ultimate worship leader there in heaven. 00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:20.880 And when our praise, even my praise reaches heaven and has been tuned by Jesus, it sounds 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:24.200 awesome to heaven. 00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.760 And he offers our prayers. 00:28:26.760 --> 00:28:28.520 You pray through him. 00:28:28.520 --> 00:28:34.320 You pray in Jesus' name and he sanctifies your prayer and he presents your prayers to 00:28:34.320 --> 00:28:39.000 the Father in his own name. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:42.440 And he also offers your service. 00:28:42.440 --> 00:28:46.840 All our service is done through Jesus Christ. 00:28:46.839 --> 00:28:54.959 For example, listen to 1 Peter 2 and 5 talking about us as priests offering spiritual sacrifices, 00:28:54.959 --> 00:28:58.759 all the things we offer to God in service. 00:28:58.759 --> 00:29:04.639 And it says they are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 00:29:04.639 --> 00:29:13.839 So how is my poor, puny, sinful, weak service acceptable to God? 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:20.919 Because it's offered through Jesus and Jesus, my high priest, takes my service and sanctifies 00:29:20.919 --> 00:29:25.159 it and makes it acceptable in heaven. 00:29:25.159 --> 00:29:27.919 He offers it to God. 00:29:27.919 --> 00:29:31.839 Let me try and illustrate just that detail. 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:39.480 Think of two little girls out for a walk. 00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:47.559 One is just maybe two to three years old and the other one's a little older. 00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:53.480 And the little one sees some flowers, a couple of different colors of flowers. 00:29:53.480 --> 00:29:57.220 And she says, I want to pick these for a mummy. 00:29:57.220 --> 00:30:02.799 So she just grabs a handful and picks the flowers. 00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:08.839 Now, she has picked these flowers and she's going to give them to mummy. 00:30:08.839 --> 00:30:11.159 But they're a bit of a mess. 00:30:11.159 --> 00:30:14.199 So our big sister says, give me that bunch for a minute. 00:30:14.199 --> 00:30:20.519 And the big sister takes some of the grass away and takes some of the weeds away and 00:30:20.519 --> 00:30:23.199 two or three bits of litter away. 00:30:23.199 --> 00:30:28.839 And we arrange as the flowers, gives them to the girl and the presented to mum. 00:30:28.839 --> 00:30:32.199 Now, it's her gift. 00:30:32.199 --> 00:30:35.480 They are the flowers she wants to give to mum. 00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:42.200 But somebody else has taken that and made it acceptable and got rid of the weeds and 00:30:42.200 --> 00:30:46.599 the rubbish before they're presented to mum. 00:30:46.599 --> 00:30:48.519 Jesus I think in heaven is a great high priest. 00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:55.960 He's doing that all the time with our praise and our prayers and our service for him. 00:30:55.960 --> 00:31:04.839 He's taking it and making it perfect and offering it before the throne as the priest who offers 00:31:04.839 --> 00:31:06.279 sacrifice to God. 00:31:06.279 --> 00:31:11.119 And that's true for every day and for all your service for this year that Jesus will 00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:13.199 be doing that. 00:31:13.199 --> 00:31:15.839 Sixth word is blessing. 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:22.119 The priests had a ministry of blessing, especially in benediction. 00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:29.279 We read that at the end of Luke 24, remember, when Jesus ascends, his hands are outstretched. 00:31:29.279 --> 00:31:36.920 He raises his hands over the disciples and it says that while his hands are still outstretched 00:31:36.920 --> 00:31:44.839 like a priest, he's lifted up before them as a sign that his priesthood is continuing 00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:49.319 and he is going to heaven to benedict them. 00:31:49.319 --> 00:31:52.000 He's going to heaven to bless them. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:56.599 It's so reminiscent of the priesthood, the high priest in the Old Testament. 00:31:56.599 --> 00:32:02.419 Remember Aaron, end of number six, we hear the Aaronic benediction often, especially 00:32:02.419 --> 00:32:04.240 here at baptisms. 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:12.319 The Lord bless you and keep you and it's about grace and peace and Jesus is the fulfillment 00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:20.319 of Aaron, the high priest and Jesus goes to heaven to bless us with grace and peace. 00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:26.240 All the blessings we enjoy flow from his nail pierced hands. 00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:33.480 And again, that is true for us every do this year, that in Christ we have every spiritual 00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:37.319 blessing in the heavenly places. 00:32:37.319 --> 00:32:44.039 From these heavenly places, our high priest pours down his blessing from his nail pierced 00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:51.759 hands and we live daily under the benediction of Jesus. 00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:54.920 And the last word is governing. 00:32:54.920 --> 00:33:00.960 And Jesus as high priest governs his church. 00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:05.880 You remember that the people of God in the New Testament are called the temple of God 00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:08.640 in various ways, in various places. 00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:14.120 You like living stones are being built, a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to 00:33:14.120 --> 00:33:17.160 offer spiritual sacrifices. 00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:24.800 And Hebrews teaches that Jesus is the priest in charge of his temple, beginning of chapter 00:33:24.800 --> 00:33:25.800 3. 00:33:25.800 --> 00:33:32.960 Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, but Christ is faithful over God's house as 00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:34.640 a son. 00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:42.000 Or 1021, we have a great priest over the house of God. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:45.000 So who's in charge of this church? 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:52.960 We think Derrick, Corey, and various others who we see every week involved in the work 00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:54.599 here. 00:33:54.599 --> 00:34:04.359 But ultimately, we have a great high priest who is over this church and over his whole 00:34:04.359 --> 00:34:05.920 house on earth. 00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:08.519 Jesus is in charge of the house. 00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:13.239 Jesus rules his temple on earth. 00:34:13.239 --> 00:34:18.719 So as we think about the church this year and the church is throughout the world, and 00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:25.879 we long and hope and pray for the peace of the church and for blessing on the church, 00:34:25.879 --> 00:34:27.799 who do we look to? 00:34:27.799 --> 00:34:34.000 We look to our great high priest who is over the house of God. 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:40.000 I've Anglican friends who often talk about a priest in charge or not having a priest 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:41.479 in charge. 00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:48.440 Well, we all have a priest in charge and we trust him for this year to look after his 00:34:48.440 --> 00:34:56.960 house, to look after his temple, and to bless his work in and through his church as he governs 00:34:56.960 --> 00:34:59.559 it in this world. 00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:07.679 Well, that's something else to say in conclusion, but I did say 30 minutes, 32 minutes ago, 00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:10.480 and that was two or three minutes in. 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:18.199 So let me just finish with one final verse from Hebrews, Hebrews 6, 19 to 20. 00:35:18.199 --> 00:35:22.360 We have this for this new year, hope. 00:35:22.360 --> 00:35:29.960 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner 00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:39.000 place behind that curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:44.280 become our high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 00:35:44.280 --> 00:35:45.280 Amen. 00:35:45.280 --> 00:36:12.840 May God bless his work.