Such A High Priest! (part 2) - [Hebrews 7:26-28]

Entered the two words most dangerous into a Google search this week and a few of the top hits were these the most dangerous ant in the world is the bulldog ant

Let me tell you it is extremely aggressive and shows little fear of human beings

Stinging a number of times in quick succession and therefore injecting more venom of each bite

It holds on to its victim with long -toothed mandibles curls its body underneath and thrusts its long barbless sting

Into the skin on a few occasions the sting has been enough to kill adults within 15 minutes

Also on the list on most dangerous were the most dangerous jobs in the world Deadliest jobs in order fishers and related fishing workers loggers

Aircraft pilots and roofers The one though I found the most interesting was the most dangerous festivals in Peru they have a

Christmas fighting festival It is true December 25th people to settle their disputes and grievances by challenging each other to fistfights on Christmas they dress up wearing costumes and to keep the proceedings from going out of control the referees use whips

Merry Christmas in Greece they have something called a rocket war and it's celebrated of course on Easter rival churches stage mock war firing as many as 60 ,000 small rockets at each other's bell towers

This takes place while services are being held in both churches and lastly, but not leastly

They have baby jumping in Spain small

Spanish village and since the 17th century The yearly ceremony is when they lay out the infants on mattresses and actors dress as devils leap over them

The ritual quote supposedly dispels the children's original sin most dangerous

When I thought to myself, is there anything more dangerous than some of these things? What's the most dangerous thing and really friends as you know, the most dangerous thing in all the world is

Thinking you can get to heaven by being good The most dangerous thing in the world is thinking you can get to heaven by simply dying

Salvation by death the most dangerous thing in the world is thinking that you're a good enough person to get into God's heaven

To think that you don't need the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of sins and to give you his righteousness that's the most dangerous thing and people die every single second

Three people every second as some have calculated and you can just start doing your math three six nine

Twelve and the list goes on Galatians 2 says, you know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ By the works of the law, no one will be justified

Paul said I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose

In other words, if you could get to heaven by being good if you get to heaven by being fine If you could get to heaven by death, why would

Jesus come and die? When he just tell you to die Every person in this room and every person in the world is a lawbreaker

Matthew 5 Jesus said but I say to you everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire

Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart

Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5 you have heard it said you shall love your enemy and hate your neighbor But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Friends the Bible is very clear We are all sinful and we need a Savior Since the

Bible says that God renders to each one according to his works How are your works are they adequate enough to get you in to heaven?

Romans chapter 2 verse 13 It's not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified

Unless you are perfectly holy unless you are perfectly blameless unless you are perfectly unstained

You can't go to heaven unless you have a high priest who is

I Officiated a wedding last week and it says member of the clergy a mom rabbi

Reverend pastor, whatever it says and I love to write every single time the same thing and I write minister of the gospel and gospel means good news and Sinful Christian and even people who are sinful who aren't

Christians. I have good news for you today the best news That even though you're not holy, even though you're not blameless, even though you're stained with sin

You have a high priest who isn't turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 7 for some good news

Jesus in this book is portrayed and preached as supreme as better as Ascended into heaven.

He is better than the prophets as good as the prophets were he is better because he's the

Son of God as Great as angels are Jesus is better because he has added humanity.

He he's not just completely God. He's not just Perfectly God. He's perfectly human as well.

So he could be your representative. He could be your substitute He Destroys death and the devil

Hebrews chapter 2. He becomes this merciful high priest a faithful high priest

Think Moses is great. Hebrew says Jesus is better. Jesus is more faithful and The way you receive these benefits is simple chapter 4 by faith by resting by trusting

And when you start comparing Jesus to the Old Testament system of Levitical priests

He's better than Aaron too, he's better than Levitical priests, too And that's where we come to in Hebrews chapter 7 today

Hebrews chapter 7 verses 26 through 28 this great high priest that you

Christian have by faith who represents you and Who is everything you aren't but everything you need to be everything that you must be and he's yours by faith

It is true that you're saved by works Don't let that pass your mind

But they need to be perfect works. They need to be entire works. They need to be personal perpetual works

You're saved by good works But since all of our works are tainted by sin by Adam sin and our own we need someone else's works

Don't we you're saved by works the works of Christ Jesus To either stand before God and give an account for your works

Are you saying before God with a mediator with an advocate with a with a lawyer with an intercessor and He's the one that guarantees you heaven because of what he's done

For you and you receive that by faith last week.

We were looking at verses 26 and following It was a very simple outline five reasons to trust your high priest for your standing before God and You can see those five things right there those five reasons in verse 26

For it was indeed fitting Hebrews 7 26 that we should have such a high priest One holy two innocent three unstained four separated from sinners and five exalted above the heavens

Everything you need in a high priest Jesus is he's fit for you.

He's not ill fit. He's not Unequipped he's not inadequate. He's perfectly fitted.

How can a sinful person get into a thrice? Holy heaven? Well, they need this kind of priest perfectly fit for a sinner

God's choice for a mediator and of course earlier in chapter 7 it talked about that if it was up to us

We would pick the wrong mediator You can kind of think it back to the college days and at high school days Maybe a little bit and of course even adults do the same thing

It's like why would that girl pick that guy for a boyfriend? It seems like she's picking the wrong guy.

She's picking the rebel Why would that guy pick that kind of girl to be the girlfriend? He's picking someone who's wrong somebody who's edgy

We pick the wrong people very regularly and very often matter of fact if you think about a big picture Adam and Eve in the garden

Pick Satan to be prophet priest and King pick Satan to be the mediator left to ourselves

Who do we pick to represent us? The answer is Satan That's why we need

God's choice because he's gonna pick the right one and he picks this great high priest The Lord Jesus Just quickly to review the first three because that's what we looked at last week

The high priest that God picked for you that you can rest in and trust in that guarantees you heaven

By faith he Jesus is first holy And remember there's a general word for holiness that you know and that means separate from sin

Transcendent different you have your regular plates And then you have your holy plates and those holy plates the separate plates that the special plates are

Are brought out for the Peruvian festival during Christmas, right? Well, this is the special word for holiness, but that's not the word used here although it's used of Jesus elsewhere

This particular word means that someone who who wants to fulfill the will of a superior somebody that always wants to please

To do the right thing To live right before God to be devout to be pious

So remember and I've said this over and over but it's so crucial if God's over there and I'm over here

I need someone in -between Since I know I'm unholy since I know I'm sinful since I know

I'm tainted. I need to be saved But this mediator has to be holy and perfect too or else he or she would need a mediator

But this priest that Jesus picked the father picked rather for you Christ. He lives perfectly before God He's holy

Not only that secondly, he's innocent or blameless He's harmless in terms of his his character, there's nothing wicked or evil in him in other words

No evil on the inside Thirdly, he's unstained

Sin defiles sins like pitch sins like tar It just keeps getting all over and you try to clean yourself and just everywhere.

That's what sin is but not with the Lord Jesus I think my ultimate pet peeve around the house is when

I get superglue on my fingers don't you hate that I Hate it when

I get superglue on my fingers because it is just not coming off until I just Scrape like ten layers of epidermis off my fingers

Hate that I'd rather have broken things in the house than have that Just like get everything you touch and then you're you're getting things.

It is just it multiplies What does this have to do with anything? I have no idea No, but with sin with pitch and tar and everything that sticks to us so easily and we're so contaminated

There's nothing inside Jesus inherently nothing from the external He's the perfect high priest.

He's holy. He's blameless. He's unstained You can even think back to the virgin conception and how the

Spirit of God was making sure that this God, man was going to be not tainted by any sin

Because if you're going to come to save people from their sins, you'd better not be a sinner And now we move to new information fourthly

Why should you be praising God that you have such a high priest knowing that even this week Christian you fell short in many areas

I know I did that Jesus is separated from sinners

He's separated from sinners this is such good news when we think about who Jesus is because You might think based on what you did last week

Christian is God still okay with you is God God still love you Does God still like you?

I? Don't think many of us live perfectly holy lives left last week perfectly innocent lives last week perfectly unstained lives last week

I'm sure we fell

But we're to be reminded today, I'm to remind you of the good news You're standing before God Christian is based on your high priest value and his work not yours

And this Jesus is separated from sinners Now here's the big picture.

There's two ways to look at it He's separate morally that is he's pure.

That's true Or he's separated spatially he's up in heaven the next part of the verse says he's exalted

So that's either morally or spatially but both are actually true Jesus is morally separated from sinners, and he's spatially now separated from sinners

He's exalted and there's no chance of contamination in heaven True or false

Jesus Went to a monastery to be separate from sinners false

Jesus was perfectly human and yet he was what a friend of Sinners he hung out with sinners so when we look at this word.

He's separated from sinners It does not mean he's he's off in a monastery, and he's far away, so he's not contaminated by anyone

But he's with the people, but he's still not contaminated. I'd like you to take your Bible and turn to mark excuse me

Matthew 9 And I want you just to see a quick illustration of Jesus how he ministers on earth yet.

He's not defiled He's the one instead of touching the leper and him becoming leprous and unclean ritually

He touches the leper and the leper it gets healed This is so different than the Levitical priest remember the writers trying to say

Jesus is greater than the Levitical priest well Levitical priest They couldn't touch a dead body. They'd be out of service for a while Jesus could touch a dead body and say arise

Levitical priest couldn't touch a leprous person because they'd be out of commission for a while till they were originally clean Jesus can touch this leprous person

He can have a woman who's been bleeding for 12 years touch him and not be defiled every other priest would be defiled

This is the kind of priest you want you don't want that old priest You want a sinful priest

I saw I went to a basketball game on Friday, and I got I was sitting in the section of It was

Caroline Ferris game, and I was sitting in the opposite section the bad team section parents and everything and boy were they bad

They were yelling and screaming and saying things This is the high school girls basketball game and finally the ref had to come over and say to some lady

You know what that's enough. That's inappropriate Stop or you're out of the game. I thought

I like this ref and then there was a guy He was all he had all black on so he had a little white thing right here, and he was part of it

And he was yelling and finally at the end of the second first half He got up and said you refs are so awful.

I protest this is disgusting and he walked out As he walked by me.

I do have to admit I looked over to Gracie, and then I said under my breath loud enough for him to hear man of the cloth

If your high priest is gonna do that I Mean I could laugh about him, but there's plenty of times.

I've done wrong things, too Just not in front of Scott and Cindy. I guess You don't want that Episcopalian priest you don't want the

Levitical priest you don't want any priest unless they're perfectly holy blameless unstained and separated from sinners

That's why it's so vain to say well. I've got this religious leader, and it's not Jesus, but he helps me be spiritual

He better help you be holy and blameless and unstained And when

Jesus is around sinners he rubs off on them. They don't rub off on him Luke not excuse me

Matthew 9 10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house behold

What great language to draw your attention right into this situation? many tax collectors and Sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples

That behold he wants you to kind of have your mind's eye just take a look at this and just imagine what's happening a reporter from From Reuters is here examining this thing and Jesus is reclining.

What's he doing sleeping at the table? No, you reclined at a meal that was a celebration

You'd extend your feet out and lean on your left elbow and eat with your right hand This means there's a big feast

Luke says that a big reception was given by Levi. This is an evangelism. This is not come to my house

I want to sell you Tupperware. This has come to my house I want you to hear about Jesus and there's tons of tax collectors tons of sinners

And you know what those Pharisees are doing birds of a feather He's reclining with them he's eating with them we think about eating as you know, let's just have a meal

This is this is fellowship. This is camaraderie. You're eating a meal. There could be no closer Gathering outside of a marriage bed essentially than this and These people were the worst of the worst they were tax collectors

They were Jewish people who are milking the Jewish people from money to give to Rome and not only that there were people that didn't

Even care about Mosaic law and we use that word sinner. I like to even think about it You can almost kind of have just a disdain to the word sinner when you pronounce it just to give the gross effect

They're not just sinners. They're sinners They don't do anything, right?

These Pharisees these separated ones these holy holy people see

Jesus eating having this close Intimacy, this is a scandal He's without cash and rejects and misfits and you know what they're thinking.

I'm sure they're thinking he's really like them And I'm sure he's they're thinking they're gonna rub off on him verse 11 when the

Pharisees saw this They said to his disciples They didn't say it to Jesus.

They said it to his disciples. Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Guilt by association.

They're grumbling. They've had enough Of course, they're jealous. Of course, they're hypocritical, but they can't take it anymore

And don't you love the Lord Jesus here look at verse 12, but when he heard it The disciples don't answer

Jesus answered. He said those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick

Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I came not to call the righteous but sinners

If you were a rabbi back in those days and you had disciples One of the things you would tell the people is you would say go and learn

I had my discipleship group this morning and I said, okay for this week. I want you to read this I want you to memorize these verses and I want you to Read this chapter and do this and do that and here's what they had to do go and learn

Now Jesus is saying to the big -shot leaders you go and learn because you don't know He's embarrassing them

Thomas Brooks said for Jesus to refuse to associate with sinners Would have been as foolish as for a doctor not to associate with the sick go and learn what this means

It's amazing Luke 5 describes it this way

It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance

Jesus was a friend of sinners. He was around sinners He he was separated in the sense that he's not going to be defiled, but he was with them.

I Refused to have dealings with people who were sinful Do you remember this story?

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking and you say behold a gluttonous man a drunkard a friend of tax collectors and sinners

Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children now one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him and he entered the

Pharisees house and reclined at table and behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner and When she learned that he was reclining at the table in the

Pharisees house She brought an alabaster vial of perfume and standing behind him at his feet weeping she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and Kissing his feet and anointing them with perfume

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself if this man were a prophet he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who was touching him that she is a sinner and Jesus answered and said to him

Simon. I have something to say to you Say it teacher a certain moneylender had two debtors one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty

When they were unable to repay he graciously forgave them both which one of them therefore will love him more

Simon answered and said I suppose the one who for he forgave more You have judged correctly and turning toward the woman he said to Simon.

Do you see this woman? I've entered your house You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair

You gave me no kiss But she since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet

You did not anoint my head with oil But she anointed my feet with perfume for this reason I say to you her sins

Which are many have been forgiven for she loved much, but he who has forgiven little loves little

He said to her your sins have been forgiven and those who are reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves

Who is this man who even forgives sins and Jesus said to the woman in Luke 7 your faith has saved you go in peace

Could there be anything more heartwarming to the Christian that Jesus is a friend of sinners

And even if you're not a Christian today Jesus loves sinners. He he justifies ungodly people

It's the publican It's the sinner who draws near to Jesus while the

Pharisees and the scribes and the religious people condemn Jesus You need a high priest who's holy blameless unstained and separated from sinners that he's not tainted by them

But not so separate he lives in a monastery back to Hebrews chapter 7, please number 5 exalted above the heavens

He's the perfect intercessor because he's exalted above the heavens and you have access to his throne you have access to his mercy

You have access to this great high priest who Hebrews 4 says has passed through the heavens He's passed through them and now he's above the heavens

Do you see it Hebrews? 7 verse 26 and exalted above the heavens

He's finished his work he lives the perfect life he dies on the cross he's raised from the dead and then he is

Ascended into heaven. I was thinking today. I thought last week. Do we talk much about the

Ascension? How often do we talk about the Ascension? Michael Horton said we treat the

Ascension as little more than a dazzling Exclamation point for the resurrection rather than as a new event in its own, right?

In fact, the resurrection is important. Yes, but so too is the Ascension Where he's raised to great heights

The point simply Jesus is at the highest position possible at the highest place of honor

Imaginable He was in heaven before the incarnation and now he's back after fulfilling the father's good pleasure

The word exalted is simple it means high it means elevated it means lofty it means exalted one

It means king of kings and Lord of Lords You think what kind of priest am I gonna get you get the king of kings and the

Lord of Lords? Ephesians describes it this way

That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places

Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age

But the one to come and he put all things under Jesus's feet and gave him as head over all things to the church

Which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all He's been raised from the dead and as mentioned said

Christianity is an event Filled religion there are events there's dust

There's dirt There's land Things happen in history the resurrection happened and so too did the

Ascension Listen to the Nicene Creed for us and for our salvation.

He came down from heaven He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. He was made human

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried the third day he rose again according to the scriptures

He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead his kingdom will never end

You all know that I've tried to teach you especially the men that I'm training to teach that if you don't have the resurrection

You don't have the gospel right First Corinthians chapter 15 if Jesus is still in the grave that means a he died for his own sins

He can't be the Messiah be he he's not Truly God and doesn't have enough righteousness and doesn't have enough power to raise himself

And all kinds of other things could happen, but he's been raised from the dead so you can't forget the resurrection

Paul preached the resurrection so much Jesus and the resurrection the people in Acts thought they were talking about Jesus Paul was talking about Jesus Male the resurrection the word in Greek is female and they thought

Jesus Was the male God and resurrection was the female God because Paul always talked about Jesus and the resurrection

My friend years ago was in the radio studio with me, and I said well Can you tell our listeners the gospel please and he went through sin death burial, and that was it so I'm in my

Radio studio you know that $20 ,000 studio. We've got over there Like this old desk you know people look at it, and they go.

That's the radio studio. Yes, and I'm seated here looking out the window.

He's seated here looking out that window And I just went like this And he goes and he was raised from the dead

So if you ever hear a preacher preach, and they're forgetting the resurrection I know we don't do a lot of hand raising the stuff of this church.

This one's acceptable Okay But you know the resurrection just part of it because 40 days later, what does he do?

He ascends into heaven and he's coming back I think maybe we should start talking about his obedience his death his burial his resurrection and his soon return

And if you're not a believer, you don't want him to come back because he's coming back with justice But if you're a

Christian you want him to come back because he's coming back for you. He's a Christian Turn to Acts chapter 1.

Let's see this ascension. It's so It's so glorious literally Jesus being raised up into heaven.

Can you imagine? We could look at the Luke account and maybe we will let's look at the ascension of Christ Acts chapter 1

Now just think about this for just a little bit if you're thinking about the Eastern ancient world and royal

Ceremonies and think about the pageantry and the procession of the new king ascending the throne and and the parade and the marching and the attendance and The royal court and people giving him gifts and he's appointing governors over the realm

This is the imagery of the ascension the new king ascending to his throne 40 days after his resurrection

It says in Acts 1 6 So when they had come together, they asked him

Lord. Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority

And Jesus does that regularly the father is in charge. He has his own time plan

But you verse 8 will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth

By the way If you'd like an outline of the book of Acts that verse is the outline Because there's what that's what happens in the rest of the book of Acts Now, here we go.

Here's the ascension think Eastern monarch motif

And when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud a

Shekinah cloud the glory cloud of the Old Testament the glory cloud that surrounds Jesus on Mount Transfiguration took him out of their sight and if you just think you know what?

It was like a cloud. What are there different kind of clouds out there? You know when you're a kid you you study clouds like what are some of the clouds?

What oh Yeah, I I knew it's like some kind of nimbus, but I didn't want to I was thinking it was a nimrod cloud

That was a different person in the Bible different kinds of clouds and Jesus kinds of goes up on a cloud

You know, there's like some little transporter underneath them and he's on this billowy cloud That's flannel graph theology

This is bright. This is shining. This is transcendent effulgent glory of the

Shekinah glory the pillar of fire kind of glory the Transfiguration kind of glory he's taken up on a cloud

They see him visibly He's lifted up think of Elijah going up to heaven except Elijah was sinful

Just going up in the chariot. This is this is going up on the throne To the throne and while they were gazing into heaven and you would do by the way your mouth would be open

And as he went behold two men stood by them in white robes and said This is wild Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

Well, just think about it. Oh You know here comes this glory cloud there goes Jesus and you're just like watching somebody says why are you doing that?

Why are you looking man of the cloth? We with our eyes

Need to be informed with special revelation how to interpret things Because left to left to ourselves we don't interpret things rightly

That's why you can't read Providence and you can't read signs in the future You can look backwards and say

I see how God orchestrated all this but we're bad future readers. We're bad future snoopers How do you read signs and and different things going on in the calendar and everything else?

We need special revelation Here's a special revelation. Jesus is going up to heaven on the Shekinah glory cloud.

How do I interpret it? I mean, he's just gonna leave me and I'm just stuck here This Jesus Who was taken up from you into heaven?

Will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven That's supposed to be encouraging for you

Christian that's supposed to be wonderful for these people bodily visibly with the glory cloud

Doesn't that make you think you know what? I've got a great high priest and he's way up in heaven as ascended But that priest is coming back

Longing for the day when the Lord will return The Ascension should should motivate you to think

Jesus is coming back. I can't wait come Lord Jesus And that's something if you're a thinking person not a

Christian you would never want You want to sin as much as you can? But no, in fact, even as I'm thinking now of 1st

Corinthians, how does 1st Corinthians? And if anyone has no love for the

Lord, let him be accursed. Oh Lord come We'd love to have you come back.

I think of Titus Chapter 2 what does Titus say about longing for that great day of the return of Christ?

It says verse 13 waiting for our blessed hope we're hoping for that not the stock market not the value of our house

Our blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

That's what we're waiting for Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession

Who are zealous for good works? I? Love what Paul said to Titus declare these things

Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one Disregard you now as you know,

I love confessions and creeds for the Reformation Let me give you a confession of creed from the

Apostles not the apostolic creed But first Timothy chapter 3 turn there, please first Timothy chapter 3

What do pastors need to know? What do congregations need to know? Here's a creed.

Here's a poem. Here's a song. Here's a hymn Found in first Timothy chapter 3 and it's simple, but it ends in the way

That you'd expect it to end So The writer

Paul says in first Timothy 316 great indeed. That's an understatement. We confess.

Here's our confession What's the church's confession? It's the mystery of godliness and Then he lists these six things about Jesus.

He referring to Jesus was manifested in the flesh He was eternal. He existed before time began and he manifest in the flesh

He was incarnate by the Spirit of God he was vindicated by the

Spirit What's that mean the Spirit of God raised him from the dead vindicating his work? Mission accomplished

I raise you from the dead He's seen by angels and by the way, when you look at this in your

Bible, can you see all the white space around these words? Showing you that it's a poem showing you that it's a confession showing you that it could be like a hymn

A different kind of genre than the rest of the epistle Manifest in the flesh vindicated by the

Spirit seen by angels proclaimed among the nations Believed on in the world and what's the last one using the same language of Acts chapter 1?

Taken up on a little tiny cloud Taken up in glory

Same verb from Luke 24 same verb from Acts chapter 1. He's taken up in glory the ascension of God The ascension of Jesus the exaltation of Jesus in brightness in splendor in radiance with majesty

This is the kind of Jesus that if you preach Men and women will follow this kind of Jesus No wonder you go to churches that are mainline and liberal and there are no mature women and no mature men there

Because they're following some kind of fable this is the Jesus that went up in the glory cloud and it's coming back and You're thinking you know what if I could pick a priest

What I picked that kind of priest. Well, God picked him for you. He's yours by faith SOS Johnson says

Why this means what this means is our covenant head has finished the work He's ascended to the right hand of the father and has taken his seat there and being our covenant head and being the

God -man And being specifically the last Adam who represents all of the redeemed It means that the redeemed are with him as their representative at the right hand of the throne of God in other words every

Redeemer every redeemed person has a Representative at the right hand of the throne of God and then

Lewis said isn't that great Heidelberg Catechism question 49

What benefit do we receive from Christ Ascension into heaven? I mean you ever ask that question Well, if you said what what benefit does it bring me if Jesus died for my sins good question

But we always ask that what benefit do we receive from Christ Ascension into heaven and the answers are so great

Because they're right from the Bible First he's our advocate in the presence of his father in heaven.

That's Hebrews 7 Second that we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that he's the head

He will take us his members up to him if he's the head and we're the body and the heads in heaven

Guess where the body's going Thirdly that he sends us his spirit as an earnest as a as a wedding engagement ring rather by whose power we seek those things

Which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God and things not on earth. This is so great

And I often wonder if somebody walks in and they're not from Churches and they just hear some guy up here doing what

I do. I'm sure they think it's crazy I think I'm sure they think I'm crazy. And if you're listening to me

I'm sure they think you're crazy to listen to a crazy person like me, but you get that phone call

You got cancer you get that phone call you need a new heart you get that phone call Grandma's died you get that phone call and everybody's gonna get that phone call

The hope that we have has to be outside of us It can't be my own intellect my own financial package my own portfolio the own.

I can't be any of that We're gonna stand before God one day and it's coming

I've had the opportunity to jump out of an airplane before and when you see the earth Weigh thousands of feet down below you you're just floating.

Hi. Nice. You see the lakes Oh, there's Lakewind Sigmund or whatever we have, you know there and all of a sudden you get closer.

It is incoming And I had this cheap old army Parachute and they told me listen

Don't look at the ground because you'll scrunch all up and then you'll you'll smash into the ground and break your leg

So so look straight ahead look at the horizon and when you hit the ground Then go to your ankles go to your calves go to your the side of your quads go to your glutes and then roll

Well, I obviously made it But I'm telling you I couldn't help but look it's incoming

But you know what for the Christian? Okay, it's incoming Because I stand in the one who's holy and so do you

Christian? I stand in the one who's blameless and so do you Christian? I stand in the one no matter what we did even this last week.

I stand in the one who's unstained I stand in the one who gives righteousness to sinners.

He's not stained by sinners He's separate from sinners and I stand in the one who stood there on that Mount of Olives and went up in glory and it

Was coming back and we want to hear a sermon about how to get through stress this week

I'll take the ascended Jesus on the glory cloud any day, won't you? Let's pray.

Thank you father for your Savior that you gave us holy blameless unstained separated and exalted

Pray that you'd give us a good reminder about the Ascension We love

Christ's law -keeping. We love Christ's sacrificial death. We love his resurrection bodily

But father give us a taste give us an appetite for loving the

Ascension Because he's where he needs to be and he's coming back and we eagerly await for that very thing

Father we're having bittersweet moments though because we have friends who need to be saved and They're gonna have the judge come back for them.

So would you be gracious to them as you've been gracious to us? You love to save sinners. It's easy for you to save sinners your spirit affectionately calls sinners in his own sovereign way

Would you let us be a part of that as we give the gospel to our friends that they might receive forgiveness like we have

Before it's too late Could there be anything more dangerous than trying to live a life without this great ascended high priest.