April 12, 2010

Leviticus 16

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement is a great picture of the atonement that Jesus has accomplished upon our behalf! The Passover & feast of unleavened bread are a great picture of the Jesus as the Lamb of God sacrificed and raised on our behalf. The Day of Atonement is a great picture of the Lord Jesus as our High Priest as He takes away our sin. At the beginning of the day the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies with the blood of a bullock to make atonement for Himself. Then he would go perform the ritual of the two goats. One He would slay and burn one goat representing the penalty of sin being carried out upon the sin of the people. He would enter the Holy of Holies a second time sprinkling the blood of the goat upon the mercy for a covering of sin for the people. He would take a second goat and lay his hands upon it. This represented the transference of the sins of the people to the goat. The goat would then be driven away into the wilderness. This indicated the carrying of the sins far away from the people.

This is what Jesus has done for us. He offered Himself on the cross paying the death penalty for us. He offered His own blood in the heavenly temple to gain mercy for us. Our sins were transferred to Him upon the cross. He died carrying our sins into the grave. He rose again divesting Himself of all our sins. He forever removed them from us by rising from the dead. He did this because He loved the Father and He loved us. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

Luke 11:29-54

"God show me a sign!" Have you ever said that? Sometimes I wish God would send me a certified letter about what He wants me to do. Come to think of it, He already has!! It's called the Bible and He sealed the letter in my life with His Holy Spirit. The generation in Jesus' day was seeking a sign. Hmmm, somehow healing the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the mute, the leper, multiplying the loaves and fishes, delivering the demonized and raising the dead was not good enough. Hmmm, some people just are not reasonable. But before He laid into these unreasonable people, Jesus did condescend to give them one bit of information. He would give them one sign and one sign only, the sign of Jonah. What is that? Jonah died in the belly of the great fish and was resurrected in order to go preach repentance to the Ninevites. The Ninevites were the wickedest people on the face of the earth in Jonah's generation. They repented at his preaching.

What is the sign? It is first of all the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is the bedrock of the Christian faith. Jesus is not just a good teacher, although, He was that. Jesus is not just a great man with good ideas, although, He was that also. Jesus is not just a man who greatly influenced the history of the whole earth, although, He did that. Jesus is the only man who has been raised from the dead, never to die again! Now that is a sign! If we can know anything about facts at all from history, this we know: Jesus was crucified and within three days his tomb was empty and his disciples 50 days after the resurrection were declaring Him to be risen from the dead and the enemies of Jesus had absolutely no legitimate explanation for the empty tomb. The only reasonable explanation is that He was alive again. If Jesus did not rise physically from the dead, then there is absolutely no validity to the Christian faith.

His resurrection makes repentance possible. Refusal to believe in the resurrection precludes the possibility of repentance. Without belief one remains under the judgment of God. Jesus pronounces woe upon those who do not believe because He knows that they will be judged and will take others with them into that judgment.

Do you want to see the glory of Jesus? Look no further than the resurrection. He took a body that was totally decimated by the ravages of sin and death and raised it to perfection and holiness. The only imperfection in His body would be the scars in His hands, feet and side in order to forever remind us of the awful price that He paid to redeem our lives. His resurrection means that no matter how decimated our life might be by the ravages of sin, He can and will raise us to new life, if we will but repent and believe. What HOPE! What promise! What glory! But woe to those who will not trust! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john