Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

November 30, 2021

11/30/2021

He Is Able!

        The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he [Jesus] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Heb. 7:23-25, RSV.

    "He is able"! Possibly the most profound words in human history.

    Jesus is able to "save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Heb. 7:25, KJV), because He not only offered a better sacrifice, but also has a better priesthood, one that will continue until sin is no more and atonement is complete.

    "He is able." Those who trust in Jesus need not fear. His hand is not shortened that it cannot save (Isa. 50:2). Unlike the Levitical priests who died, the resurrected Jesus is always there for His people.

    At this point we need to ask what it means to be saved "to the uttermost" or "completely" (Heb. 7:25, NIV). We see one aspect reflected in the Revised Standard Version's translation: "He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him." That meaning is certainly in the context, but extent in time doesn't capture the full contextual implications. Hebrews 7:27 goes on to speak of human sin and the ineffectiveness of the Levitical sacrifices as opposed to the efficacious once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus that solved the sin problem once and for all. Thus Christ's saving "to the uttermost" implies that Jesus rescues us from all that we need redemption from--that His salvation is complete deliverance from the sin problem.

    W. H. Griffith Thomas, combining that thought with the temporal one, writes that "looking back over the past, we have been saved from the condemnation and guilt of sin; looking round upon the present, we are being saved from the power, love, and defilement of sin; looking forward to the future, we shall be saved from the very presence of sin in the glorified state above."

    In short, Jesus is able to "save to the uttermost" not only because He lives, but also because He interceded for those who come to Him. He returned to heaven as a victorious conqueror who died and rose again and sits on God's throne as an equal.

    For all of those reasons and more, "He is able"!

November 29, 2021

11/29/2021

Jesus: The Better Way

        He entered once for all into the Holy Place ["Holies" in Greek], taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Heb. 9:12, RSV.

    Jesus didn't enter the throne room of heaven (called the "Holies" in Hebrews, the name for the heavenly Temple) empty-handed. He entered as our High Priest who had also been our sacrifice. On the cross He had died for my sins that I might have His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21) It is little wonder that the songwriters speak of "the cleansing blood." Hebrews 9:22 helps us see the importance of that sacrifice when it notes that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (RSV). Of course, as Hebrews argues, the repeated Jewish sacrifices could never take away sin and its penalty. All they could do was point to the "Lamb of God," who would remove the sin of the world. Hebrews 9:23, 24 highlights that truth when it tells us that "it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites [the repeated sacrifice of sheep and goats], but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices [Christ's atoning death] than these. For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary ["holies" in Greek] made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (RSV).

    One of the key phrases in this section of the book of Hebrews is "once for all." Christ "once for all...offered up himself" (Heb. 7:27, RSV). He appeared "once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 9:26, RSV). "We have all been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:10, RSV). And "he entered once for all into the [Holies], taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:12, RSV).

    Those verses bring us to another key word in the book of Hebrews--"better." The whole book builds on that term. Thus Jesus is better than the angels (Heb. 1:4-2:18), better than Moses and Joshua (Heb. 3:1-4:13), and better than Aaron (Heb. 4:14-10:18). He also has a better priesthood (Heb. 7:1-28), a better covenant (Heb. 8:1-10:18), and faith in Him is a better way (Heb. 10:19-11:40).

    For all of those reasons believers in Him can come boldly before the throne with full assurance that they have a sympathetic High Priest in heaven who is taking care of the sin problem in terms of its effects in the universe and in their personal lives.

    Thank You, Father, for the heavenly object lesson of the sanctuary that helps us to understand the reality of what Jesus is now doing for us in heaven.

November 28, 2021

11/28/2021

Coming Boldly Before God's Throne

        Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Heb. 4:14-16, NKJV.

    One of the most significant truths in the New Testament is that "we have a great High Priest" who passed through the atmospheric and starry heavens after His ascension to meet God.

    He is the Son of God, and thus has access to the Father. But Jesus is much more than a divine Being "out there." At His incarnation He became "God with us" (Matt. 1:23). As a result, He can "sympathize with our weaknesses" because He "was in all points tempted as we are." Jesus understands us in ways that would not have possible had He not partaken of our sufferings. Here is a unique Person--one who has access to both God and individual humans. In that position He serves as the link between two incompatible worlds.

    We should not pass over lightly the humanness of Jesus highlighted in today's verses. In the Greek world into which Jesus was born, the idea of God was that of detachment from humanity. Philo (a Jewish theologian/philosopher contemporary with Jesus and the apostles) promoted that detachment in the person of the high priest when he wrote that such an individual needs "to show himself superior to pity, and pass the whole of his life exempt from all sorrow" (The Special Laws 1:115).

    Jesus was plainly the opposite of the Greek ideal. He became flesh and blood and suffered from the same types of temptations that we do. As a result, He understands us. He is one of us--we are His brothers and sisters (Heb. 2:10). It is because of that experience that He can sympathize with us as we face trials, temptations, and even death--He has passed through all of those things.

    Therefore, the book of Hebrews tells us, we can come "boldly to the throne of grace" to find both mercy and grace in our times of distress. Because we have such a High Priest the doors of the heavenly Temple are wide open to us. No matter how dark our sin, no matter how deep our hurt, no matter how profound our disillusionment, we are welcomed at the throne of God by a High Priest who truly understands us.

    Today as we bow before the throne of the Almighty let us praise Him again that we can come "boldly" rather than with fear or doubt. Our High Priest is there, ever willing to help us.

November 27, 2021

11/27/2021

Jesus' Work in Heaven

        We have a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. Heb. 8:1, 2, NKJV.

    We have a High Priest in heaven. With that statement we know what Jesus has been doing since the Ascension. He had finished the sacrificial aspect of His ministry and has moved to the priestly.

    In describing His priestly ministry the book of Hebrews becomes quite specific. Jesus is not merely somewhere up in heaven, but is ministering in the "true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man." Prior to these verses, Hebrews has indicated the existence of a heavenly sanctuary. But in today's passage the book begins to present the heavenly sanctuary as the seat of God's operations.

    The idea of a heavenly sanctuary wasn't completely new to the Jewish mind. Several pre-Christian Jewish documents allude to it. Central to their understanding was Exodus 25:8, 9, in which God told Moses regarding the Israelites, "Let them build me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so shall you make it" (RSV). Hebrews 8 utilizes Exodus 25 as the foundation for its presentation of the heavenly sanctuary, or the "true tabernacle," that provided the "pattern" for the wilderness sanctuary and its ministries, which were only a "copy and shadow" of heavenly realities (Heb. 8:5, NKJV). Later Jewish thought also connected God's throne to the heavenly Temple (see Isa. 6:1).

    Thus the idea of a heavenly sanctuary that contains God's throne was nothing new to Jewish thinking. The concept that would have been novel to them was the fact that Jesus was now there serving as high priest in their behalf.

    What the book of Hebrews is arguing is that Christ's ministry is the real thing, while the Levitical ministry was merely an illustration that pointed toward His future work. Just as all of the animal sacrifices foretell Jesus' once-for-all sacrifice as the Lamb of God and the real Passover (1 Cor. 5:7), in the same way the earthly sanctuary directed attention to the true sanctuary in heaven.

    In short, priestly ministry has shifted from earth to heaven and to Jesus as the true High Priest. The rending of the curtain from top to bottom at the very time of His sacrifice on the cross signaled the transfer (Matt. 27:51). The Most Holy of the earthly Temple was no longer holy.

    It is time to turn our eyes to heaven and what Jesus is now doing for us.

November 26, 2021

11/26/2021

A Friend on the Throne

        He [Jesus] is the radiance of His [God's] glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He [Jesus] had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Heb. 1:3, NASB.

    So, we need to ask, where did Jesus go when He ascended?

    Stephen answered that question in reporting the vision he received just before he became the first Christian martyr. In it he saw the risen Jesus in heaven at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56).

    But it is the book of Hebrews more than any other in the Bible that describes where Jesus went and what He has been doing for the past 2,000 years. The opening verses tell us that after "He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of" God. And Hebrews 1:8 highlights both Jesus' divinity and His place on the throne. "But of the Son," we read, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the righteous scepter is the scepter of thy kingdom" (RSV).

    Today's passage has two important ideas, the first is that the divine Jesus did indeed take His seat on the governing throne of the universe in the place of honor at the right hand of the Father. In using that terminology the author of Hebrews is alluding to Psalm 110:1: "The Lord said to my lord: 'Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool' " (RSV). That verse is the most cited Old Testament verse in the New Testament, and it undergirds much of the presentation in the entire book of Hebrews.

    Of special interest in Hebrews 1:3 is that Jesus "sat down" at God's right hand. Earthly priests stood while performing their functions because they were continually offering sacrifices. But Jesus, who died "once for all" (Heb. 10:10, 14), had put an end to the need for any further sacrifice. His sacrificial work had been accomplished and never needs to be repeated. Thus the words "sat down" have an air of finality about them. Jesus "had made purification of sins." It was a completed work. He could now "sit down."

    The Gospels highlight the great substitutionary sacrifice of Christ, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29, RSV). That part of Christ's work is over. He now moves on to the priestly aspect of His work, which is the focal point of the book of Hebrews. Another way of saying it is that in the Gospels Jesus accomplished our salvation, while in His heavenly priesthood He will apply the benefits of what He has done to each of His followers.

November 25, 2021

11/25/2021

A Tale of Two Inaugurals

        When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them as tongues of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance....When they heard this [Peter's message] they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the disciples, "Brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins....There were added that day about three thousand souls. Acts 2:1-41, RSV.

    The great event in the throne room of heaven at the inaugural of Christ had accompanying events on earth that signaled the beginning of a new age in which Christ's followers would eventually become a force on earth through the power of the Holy Spirit.

    Ellen White illustrates the connection between the two inaugurals when she writes that "the Pentecostal outpouring was Heaven's communication that the Redeemer's inauguration was accomplished. According to His promise He had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to His followers as a token that He had, as priest and king, received all authority in heaven and on earth, and was the Anointed One over His people" (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 39).

    The Jewish holiday of Pentecost was the very best day of the year for such a demonstration. Pentecost means "fiftieth," and took place 50 days after Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. The Hebrew calendar called it the Feast of Weeks (since it took place a week of weeks after the Passover and its related events) and the Feast of Firstfruits (since on that day the priests offered two loaves of grain in thankfulness for the beginning of the grain harvest).

    By that time of year (early June) travel was safer and Jerusalem hosted the largest and most varied assortment of worshippers of any time of the year. People from all over the empire would be in the city.

    It was a propitious time for Christ's inaugural in heaven and His initiation of a new era on earth. On the day of Pentecost, through the mighty Spirit-empowered preaching of Peter, type met antitype and the meaning of "firstfruits" took on a new significance as the firstfruits of the Christian message came in through the power of the Spirit. That day about 3,000 individuals accepted the message of Jesus Christ as the crucified and resurrected Lord and Messiah.

    But Pentecost was only the beginning of the new age in God's work. Christ's inaugural blessing will remain with His church until His return at the end of the age. With the bestowal of the Spirit heaven poured out its richest gift.

November 24, 2021

11/24/2021

Inaugural Event

        Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped. Rev. 5:11-14, RSV.

    The scene now shifts. The Ascension not only means that the resurrected Christ depart from the earth, but also that He arrives in heaven. And He doesn't do so merely as a weary pilgrim but as a conquering King. Jesus has completed the work that He left His place in heaven to accomplish. Now He is inaugurated or, more accurately, reinaugurated as the one worthy to take an equal place with the Father on His throne.

    Thus the scene shifts from the disciples rejoicing in the earthly Temple to the angelic hosts praising in the heavenly Temple. In that great Temple scene Revelation 4 and 5 present a sequence of praises as the Lamb rejoins the Father on inauguration day.

    The praises focus on Jesus' worthiness as "the Lamb who was slain." At the cross heaven defeated Satan. That event assured the security of a universe in trouble. It is now history. The present for the heavenly throng is praise and adoration in the superlative.

    And what is the worthy inaugural Lamb to receive? Power for one thing. The risen Christ, sitting on the throne of the universe, will be able to dispense power to His followers on earth. The first earthward expression of that power takes place on the day of Pentecost when the apostles receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Thus the inauguration had an earthly side. Once again we see a connection between events on earth and heavenly realities. With Jesus on the throne His followers on earth are assured of heavenly gifts.

    Power, of course, is but one item in the list of gifts to the Lamb who was slain--wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing are also His. The inaugural scene closes with the entire universe joining in on the greatest praise session in the history of the universe.

    As we seek to grasp the reality and wonder of these events, we need carefully to study and meditate upon the songs of Revelation 4 and 5. They will help us enter more fully into true worship as we apply these lessons to our daily devotional life.

November 23, 2021

11/23/2021

Preparing for Action

        Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke 24:50-53, RSV.

    Here is Luke's other account of the Ascension. Jesus had been with His followers for 40 days since the cross, offering them "many proofs, appearing to them..., and speaking of the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3, RSV).

    And now He was leaving as the disciples stood awestruck as He was caught up to heaven. But the angels assured them that He would return for them in just as public a way as they had seen Him go (verse 11).

    Christ's ascension divided their lives into two parts. It signified an ending of their apprenticeship, in which they had been daily taught by the incarnate Jesus. And it also signaled a beginning, in which they would be left to guide and shepherd the church of their risen Lord.

    Luke 24:53 tells us that after witnessing the Ascension they "returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God" (RSV). That is probably an understatement. My guess is that the apostles and their friends must have fairly skipped all the way back to Jerusalem, shouting to each other as they recounted the events of the past few weeks. They had a great deal to rejoice over. Beyond the shadow of a doubt they knew that they had a friend in heaven. And they couldn't keep their mouths shut.

    But they also had other things to attend to. The Ascension took place 40 days after Passover. And Pentecost would occur at day 50. In the interim Jesus had commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promised power of the Holy Spirit.

    Acts records that they returned to Jerusalem and "went up to the upper room, where they were staying." Then Luke tells us, after listing the disciples, that "all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers" (Acts 1:12-14, RSV).

    Christianity is more than public rejoicing in the Temple. It is also praying to God in the privacy of our own upper room as we seek Him out for power to witness more effectively to other believers and to the world around us.

    The truth of the matter is that in the long run we need quiet time with God if our public work for Him is to have authenticity and power.

November 22, 2021

11/22/2021

A Faith-building Event

        Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, "Men of Galilee, who do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." Acts 1:9-11, NKJV.

    The next essential step in the ministry of Jesus for a lost world had arrived. We have seen so far His incarnation, sinless life, death, and resurrection. Now we witness His ascension. And here we can be thankful for Luke, the only Bible writer who describes this event.

    The first thing we should note about the Ascension is that it was public. And that was important. The alternative would have been a quiet disappearance that left Jesus' bewildered followers puzzled as to where He had gone. That would have resulted in a picture of Jesus appearing to His disciples less and less often until they finally saw Him no more. Eventually they would have wondered what they believed in.

    But Jesus didn't do it that way. All the leading disciples and many others saw Him rise from the earth and return to heaven--an event they would never forget. They served a Lord who had not only risen from the grave but also from the earth. The manner in which Jesus departed was faith building. It had to bring to the minds of the disciples Jesus' words on the night before His crucifixion when He told His followers not to let their hearts be troubled because He was returning to heaven to prepare a place for them and would come again for them. The public manner of the Ascension was a visible, public demonstration of the first half of that promise.

    One of the more interesting aspects of today's passage is the question of the angels: "Why do you stand gazing up into heaven?" The answer seems to be obvious. If we saw someone from our church (or anyone else) floating toward heaven, we would be left both gawking and speechless.

    The public ascension of Jesus was absolutely essential for the disciples. Because of it they knew that they served a risen Lord who had gone to heaven to minister in their behalf. They weren't altogether sure what that meant. But they could have faith that they were not alone.

    And we have that same faith.

    Thank You, Father, for the ascension of Jesus. As we meditate upon that event may its meaning become ever more clear in our hearts and minds.

November 21, 2021

11/21/2021

Jesus' Mission Plan, Part 2

            But you are to be given power when the Holy Spirit has come to you. You will be witnesses to me, not only in Jerusalem, not only throughout Judea, not only in Samaria, but to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8, Phillips.

    When we think of world mission we too often have a mental image of going far away to some foreign land where the "heathen" have never heard about Jesus. Christ, Himself, set forward just the opposite program. His command is for us to start with the "heathen" in our own town.

    For the earliest disciples that meant Jerusalem. Jesus had sown gospel seed in the Jewish metropolis for years. It was there that He "had been condemned and crucified. In Jerusalem were many who secretly believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, and many who had been deceived by priests and rulers. To these the gospel must be proclaimed? (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 31).

    What we find in the book of Acts is the filling out of the mission program or schedule set forth in Acts 1:8. Obeying Jesus' advice, His followers first preached the gospel in Jerusalem. And the fruit came fast because of the many waiting hearts who had already known about Jesus but had not yet decided to dedicate their lives to Him. The harvest was now ripe and about 3,000 Jewish believers would be baptized on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41), with more joining the church with each passing day (verse 47). Even "a great many of the priests" became "obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7, RSV).

    While the first post-Pentecostal step in Christian mission took place in Jerusalem (Acts 2-6), the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7) led to the believers being "scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria" (Acts 8:1, NKJV). And with that event the action of Christian mission broadened, like the rings in water caused by a falling stone. Acts 8 highlights the ministry of Philip in Samaria. Then Acts 10 features Peter reluctantly bringing the message of Christ to a Gentile. And with the conversion of Cornelius the non-Jew the way opened for the gospel to go the rest of the world, a process that Acts sets forth in the work of the apostle Paul from Acts 13 to 28.

    Paul's work, of course, is just one arm of the apostolic mission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. As we noted earlier, Thomas carried it to Persia and probably India. Others proclaimed Christ in Africa and other places. The ever-widening circle of Christian outreach will continue until the "whole world" has heard the message of the risen Christ. "Then the end will come" (Matt. 24:14, RSV).