April 12

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. 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 had 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

PSALM 102
I guess because my grandson is visiting me right now, I think about dirty diapers when I read about being changed. Babies are helpless to change themselves. Some of them like being changed. Some of them do not like it. In general they do not like being in their poop, but as they grow older, they don’t like the experience of being changed, especially if they have sat in it long enough to develop a rash. Coupled with the desire to not be controlled, the pain of the rash makes the experience of changing unbearable. What an analogy to us when we are helpless in our sin! The Psalmist says, “He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, And shall not despise their prayer.” As babies are destitute to change themselves, so are we helpless to change ourselves.
Yet we are given this promise that He looks down from heaven, “To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To release those appointed to death.” That sounds a lot like Isaiah 61:1:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

This is the passage that Jesus quoted and claimed to fulfill when He spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus came to do that. To change the metaphor, He came to change our poopy diapers. We cannot change them ourselves. But you know, there must be cooperation on our part. I just heard my daughter-in-law cry out, “Come here! Let me change your poopy diaper.” Then I heard the footsteps of my granddaughter running away. Is that not just like us? The Lord of the Universe commands us to come to Him to permit us to be changed by him, but we run the other way. He has power to set us free, but we won’t cooperate. Does that diminish His glory? Only in the ability of others to see it. When we cooperate with Him and freely yield to his power to change, it increases the ability of other to see His changing power, and that increases his glory! Lord, let me cooperate with your changing power! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ISAIAH 9:8-10:4
What parent among us will not discipline our child when we realize that it is needed? If we love our children, we discipline them in order to teach them how to live in this world. Is God any different? Of course He is not any different. He disciplines His own children. He disciplines us to teach us to live not only in this world, but also in the one to come. This passage is an excellent example! For generations the nation of Israel had been stiff-necked and disobedient. She had robbed the needy of justice, taken what was right from the poor, preyed upon widows and robbed the fatherless. The Lord promises that His judgment, discipline, will come. Even at that late point in Israel’s history, she thought that she could rebuild from past discipline. Israel still thought she could turn to Syria and the Philistines and with their help survive the current crisis. But the Lord warns that they will turn on Israel and devour her. God has extended His hand to discipline and it was extended still. But like a strong-willed child, Israel refuses to respond to the discipline of the Lord. She insisted on pursuing her own way. The result was the promised destruction of her leaders.
So, where do I fit in this scheme? It is His glory to discipline me to teach me how to live in this world and in the next. I can learn to be compliant. One practical outworking of being compliant can be seen in how I respond to the poor, especially the widow and the orphan. He desires mercy upon them. When it is shown, it reveals His glory. 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