Today in the Word for Sept 2-7
Today in the Word
Thursday Sept 2, 2021
What makes Jesus a better priest than the Jewish priesthood? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Hebrews focuses on how Jesus is better, and in 7:13-19 we find:
“He…belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests..[Jesus is]one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life…a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”
The Jewish priesthood was set up by Moses to be accomplished through the Levite tribe of the family of Aaron. Generations of Aaron’s family served as high priest. But Jesus is from the kingly tribe of Judah, not Levi. Jesus doesn’t have Levitical ancestry to be our high priest. He has something better. He has an indestructible life. He was murdered, but he rose from the dead.
All Aaronic priests eventually died and had to be replaced. But Jesus is a better priest. Not only does he not need to be replaced, he has beaten death itself. We live in a world ruled by death. But Jesus rules over death. He is a priest who is also King.
If our goal is to survive our death, it is the better priesthood of Jesus to which we must appeal.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Friday Sept 3, 2021
How does Jesus offer us a better covenant than the one given to Moses? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Hebrews 8:6-10 reads:
“…the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said:…because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts…”
The Law of Moses was good. Nothing was inherently wrong with God’s Law. The 10 Commandments were written on stone by God himself. But therein was the problem. People consistently fell short of keeping the Law on stone, and then they fell under God’s judgment. I Corinthians 3:3 puts it this way:
“You show that you are a letter from Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
Jesus’ command is written by the Holy Spirit on the inside. It is not a code from the outside. Jesus takes us past behavior modification to a mind and a heart transformed to want the command of our Lord.
A better covenant changes us on the inside.
Today in The Word
Monday Sept 6, 2021
What makes the covenant of Jesus better than the Old Testament covenant? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Hebrews 8:10-13 reads:
“…I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they…say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest...
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.”
The focus here is on the phrase, ‘from the least of them to the greatest.’ The Old Testament tells the story of the Lord’s power resting on a few key leaders. Jesus has brought an equalizing message—a democratizing message. As Peter’s quote of Joel 2 in Acts chapter 2 states, now the Spirit now falls on everyone-young and old, male and female, slave and free.
The gospel message is not for a select few. It is not just for certain leaders and holy men. The message of Jesus is a message of the Spirit’s residence in everyone.
And that is better.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in The Word
Tuesday Sept 7, 2021
What is Hebrews 9:23 talking about when it says, “…better sacrifices than these.”? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Hebrews 9:24-28 goes on to explain:
“For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Not did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own…But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself…so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many…”
Forgiveness in the Old Testament depended on repetition. The Day of Atonement was annual. But Jesus solved our sin problem in a single event. And he did not accomplish his sacrifice in a copy of heaven. He did so in heaven itself.
Jesus’ power to forgive our sin is ‘one and done’. Jesus’ forgiveness is better because it is the completion of what was being practiced year after year. Jesus’ forgiveness of sin is the only permanent forgiveness. Once on Mt Calvary was enough.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.