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“Perfect
Forever”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Hebrews 7:23-28
“...the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who
has been made perfect forever.”
Reading, hearing, and listening to the Holy Scriptures are ways for us
to find certain things from God: guidance, understanding, proper belief,
and repentance that we need in our lives.
God can and may speak to us in unique ways, based on our needs.
The Scriptures are a wonderful means for the truest parent in our
lives to lead us, give to us, and help us change.
And after having said this, I do want to emphasize that the ultimate
purpose of the Holy Scriptures is to be the main power of the Holy
Spirit which points to Jesus Christ.
The Scriptures are not first and foremost a book of history.
The Scriptures are not first and foremost a book of even how to
live our lives. The main
reason for the presence of the written Word of God is not to give us
proper religion and laws by which we are to shape our lives.
The Scriptures are first and foremost a witness to who Jesus
Christ is, what has become of Him, and what that has to do with us.
And that helps us see our place in this world.
We are disciples. In
the church, we are to be witnesses of Jesus Christ.
The Bible directs us to Christ.
We experience encounters with Him.
And these are so meaningful in our lives that we cannot hold it
in. We share what we have been given with others.
Last Sunday we heard that one major aspect of the ministry of Christ in
our lives is to lead us, at times, to put the needs of others before our
own needs. This morning
passage, as a witness to where we may encounter Christ in our lives, is
continuing the theme of Christ’s ministry within us.
We think a lot about God being present in our lives.
Yes, when seriously painful events occur we ask where God is and
why something like this would happen.
We think of God in some kind of general terms.
We believe in God. We
know God is God in that He is sovereign over all.
And we place God, in our minds, as the powerful control over
whatever events may occur.
What is very helpful for us, in our lives of faith, is to learn more
specifically where God is in our lives and what God is going.
The most important truth about where God is in our lives is in that God
is present in the Holy Spirit, and through the ministry of Christ we are
being brought into the love of God the Father.
The author of the book Hebrews is writing to Jews who have come to faith
in Jesus Christ. Through
their lives, up until now, they have come to know and have their faith
in God through a certain kind of religious situation; priests, sacrifice
rituals, and the understanding that they were in a covenant with God,
and that their side of the covenant was based on the Law which God has
given them through Moses.
Their religious history has been with God and led them to where they
are, but now their whole religious situation has changed.
Their relationship with God is totally new.
The covenant with God is new.
Their High Priest is totally new.
And His place in their lives is beyond anything they would have
imagined on there own.
Priests used to spend their time making sacrifices for their own sins
and for the sins of all the people.
That is not the way it is now.
The High Priest is not spending His time trying to make offerings
to God. The final sacrifice
was made “once for all.” Those three words are some of the greatest words in all the
Scriptures. If we do not go
away today remembering all that much, let’s remember these three
words, ONCE FOR ALL.
The new High Priest is every bit as human as every one of us, and at the
same time, because of God’s love for Him, and God’s love for us, he
has been exalted even above the heavens.
Heaven--that aspect of what God created where God is known and
obeyed and evil is has no presence and life in this place is eternal--is
the ultimate dream for every one of us.
We try to imagine it. We
know we fall short. And we
want and try to believe that that is where we will be after we leave
this world. And what we are
being told this morning is that Jesus Christ, the true priest in our
lives, has even been raised above what heaven is all about.
And thirdly, the “word of oath,” the greatest promise made by God,
that came to us, even after the Law is that this new High Priest will be
perfect forever.
Let’s hear what this passage is telling us about the presence of God
in our lives in Jesus Christ, who He is, what became of Him, and what
that has to do with us:
He is not spending any more time making things right between us and God
that Father. It has been
done, accomplished, finished, ONCE
FOR ALL!
We hope for heaven, we believe in heaven; at our true times of
faith, we trust we are going to be in heaven.
You and I have a person in our lives right now who is even above
heaven. You have a presence
in your life that’s even greater than the heavens.
Think about that. You
already have someone in your heart who has been exalted even above the
heavens.
And this is never going to change.
The Son has been made perfect forever.
Who He is, what became of Him, and what that has to do with you
and me can never be threatened.
What needed to be done to make us right with God was done once for all.
And it’s even greater than what we have learned to think about
heaven. Nothing will ever
change it. Do we hear how
saved we are?
As we enter into the Lord’s Supper, this is not simply a remembrance
of the life of Jesus before his death, resurrection, and ascension.
We are being encountered in a most real way by the true High
Priest in our hearts, souls, and lives, here and now.
“Take a kiss between two lovers; it is not a third thing that merely
represents their love; it is their whole, already present love,
re-presented—made really present again—at a specific point under a
specific sign.” (Robert Capon)
Our coming to the Lord’s table is not just something else we are doing
to show our faith in God. We
are in God’s love; it is the true meaning of our whole lives, and that
love is being re-presented to us in this communion.
Let is pray…
Amen
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