Jesus standing in the gap

Attention: Where did that gap come from?
Application: Jesus the Great High Priest
Appeal: How does this affect OUR story?

Attention: Where did that gap come from?

Romans 3v23
For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Genesis 3v22
The LORD said, "These people now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do. But they must not be allowed to eat fruit from the tree that lets them live forever."
So the LORD God sent them out of the Garden of Eden, where they would have to work the ground from which the man had been made.


-Go right back to Genesis 3 when Eve and then Adam fell into temptation in the Garden and sinned.
-Brought division among people-Caused fruitfulness to become less -Toil and strife in survival-God had to drive them out because if they were allowed to stay, they would be eternally trying to hide themselves.
-Imagine a relationship with someone you love so desperately, but the other was constantly hiding from you. God had to drive them out in order to bring them back.

What was the consequence of this for them? There was a gap
What is the consequence of that for us? There is a gap


Application: Jesus the Great High Priest

Leviticus 4 Atonement for sin

Atonement

Hebrew: כּפר kâphur (kaw-far)
To cover or cancel, appease, cleanse, forgive

Greek: καταλλαγή katallagē (kat-al-lag-ay)
Restoration to the divine favor

-God continues to raise up a people Israel

-There is still a gap between humans and God so He had to create something that can help close that gap which was animal sacrifice.

-The way was not a permanent solution. It was methodical and had appears to have no real relational meaning. It was a means of keeping God’s anger against sin away.

-Once a year a priest from the order of the Levites was appointed to go into the Holy of Holies to ‘atone’ for the people’s sin. He would present before God an offering to make up for all the wrong things done. The position was serious, and often, a bell on a rope would be attached to the leg of the priest, so that if anything happened he would be able to be dragged out by those that are left outside.

There was still a gap.

-Animals cannot close the gap between a Holy God and His beloved people.
-They were still presented by sinful people.

-Jesus was created by the Father to be our final atonement for sin. Hebrews calls Him our ‘Great High Priest’ who once and for all, was crucified and set before God as an offering on behalf of Jews, Gentiles and the entirety of humanity. He was the perfect sinless sacrifice.

-But there is another element to this. Jesus is not only just a ‘sacrifice’ He is also a Great High Priest who has gone through the things that we go through. Is a part of the Trinity. So God didn’t just create a human who was meaningless, He actually sent a part of Himself to die on behalf of us.

-Not only is the gap filled……..it was filled with His own being.

Hebrews 2v14 onwards
We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death.
But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying.
Jesus clearly did not come to help angels, but he did come to help Abraham's descendants.
He had to be one of us, so that he could serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins.
And now that Jesus has suffered and was tempted, he can help anyone else who is tempted.
(CEV)

The gap is closed.

Appeal: How does this affect How does this affect OUR story?

But it does not end here. Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice that meant more than just an animal dying.

He was flesh and blood for more than 30 years. He experienced all things that we experience:

Hebrews 4v15
Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin!
So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.

When we sin-we create a gap between us and God.

But we can bravely and boldly come before the throne of God because Jesus, the One who fills that gap for us, knows every single weakness and temptation that we go through, and He can ‘intercede’ or go between us and God, as if He was our representative, and ask God for our forgiveness.

We need to choose to accept that offer from Him. He didn’t just do it so we could go about our daily lives doing what we want.

The gap wasn’t filled so we could please ourselves.

It was so that we could come into right relationship with Him. TRINITY. The trinity can be complete when we accept the offer of His ‘sacrifice’ for our sins that cause that gap between us and God.

eternally his

Eternally His

This past month has been filled with anxiety and worry about the stupidest of things. And when I am finally free of the things to worry about, I worry about what to worry about next.

For those of you that know me, I am usually one of the more relaxed people, not worrying when something doesn’t work out or when something goes wrong, plans fail or something else comes up. I have usually been the first to think of a solution and try and work things out. I have always loved the verse ‘And God works for Good for all those that Love Him’. I have not really ever been concerned about future, moving continents, knowing in my heart of hearts that God has it all under control.

And then BAM. Worry floods me like the Fraser River will probably flood if we get any more of this horrid rain here in British Columbia.

Yahweh is incredible vast and rich. He runs on forever, never ending never getting shallow, never fading. He is forever deep and wide and high. Everything in this life is known by Him. All things miniscule are under His watchful eye that ‘never slumbers nor sleeps’. He knows all. He is aware of all things that move and have their being in this life and the next. My God is so much bigger than all the ‘light and momentary troubles of this life’. Nothing ever shocks Him, nothing ever ever ever throws Him off His course, He is never worried when I worry, He sees the solution, knows the problem and understands why and how I found myself there.

John 8v12 says ‘I am the Light of the World. Those who follow me shall never stumble in darkness have the light that leads to life’ Jesus never said ‘I am the Light of the world. Now you have me you will never have troubles because I have come to make it easy’. He says that He is the Light of the World. The reason why those of us who know Him and follow Him never ‘stumble in darkness’ is because we have a light. We have the Holy Spirit within us and guiding us. Have you noticed how the darkness changes when you awkwardly fumble around, still drunk with sleep at 2am in the morning, trying desperately to find that switch on the bedside lamp? The darkness suddenly changes. It doesn’t disappear, just like energy. It never disappears, it just changes to something else. Darkness never goes away, it changes with the light. That is why Psalm 23 says ‘Even though I walk through the Shadow of the valley of death’. A shadow is created when there is light.

Light and momentary troubles of this life will never end. We will never find solace in this life. There will always be something. But we have the Light to change our dark times.

And after all this we have another life. Eternity has already started for us that know Jesus. Already we are living out our eternity. We will just shift to another mode when we finally leave, whenever that will be for each of us.

So there is an eternal perspective for all of us. This is not it. This is not the be all and end all. And that somehow makes all things so much simpler. My life will not and shall not end here on earth.

Everything that I do for God’s Kingdom has an eternal consequence. And knowing this changes the importance of things in this life. If I slave away over something that really does not have a lot of meaning, what is its worth? If I spend 10 hours on trying to desperately achieve something that doesn’t help anyone, inspire anyone, bless God in anyway, then should I be spending copious amounts of time on it at all?

All truth that is spoken, I think, will echo eternally too. Jesus spoke truth always-no matter what He said, it was always truth and life. The kind words He spoke, the harsh words He spoke, they came from Heaven and ricochet into forever. Even though at this time, it is against the rules for us to speak the Gospel to kids in schools, it is never been banned to speak truth over them. Encouraging them, inspiring them, loving them inside and out, I believe, will make more of a difference than telling them something that I have memorised and repeat out.

If I love and love and love on them, they will see more of Jesus than my words can paint.