Requirements For Sacrifice

All right, let's pray and we will get started Lord Jesus again as we open up your word. We confess our complete need for you

We need you for our life our breath our food our health And we also need you and your spirit to help us understand your word.

We ask that you would Humbly as as your servants we humbly ask that you would send your spirit so that we may rightly

Understand what you have revealed in your word all of this to the praise of your glorious grace. We ask in Jesus name.

Amen we are about to launch into a study of the book of Leviticus and Leviticus is not a book that modern

Christians spend a lot of time in and it is one that they should be spending a lot of time in the the the tie -ins back to Jesus are profound the implications as it relates to the

Lord's Supper the sacrament of the altar again or profound and the way in which

God changes up his idioms in his phraseology in regards to what he will refer to as food offerings the requirements for people to eat the sacrifices that are offered in the tabernacle

Which will eventually become the temple and then later in the book of Leviticus. We'll see this in chapters 21 and 22

God himself will refer to the flesh of animals as bread

Which is a very fascinating thing You just sit there you go. What is he up to?

So this is a book that the ancient church when you read the Church Fathers the

Church Fathers spent a lot of time in this text and It really helped them flesh out the concepts of types and shadows and there's a text

I want to show you real quick that will begin to frame our study of this book, which is one of the least

It's a diamond in the rough It's the best way I can put it is that people are they they do not recognize or understand the gem that we have

But in Colossians chapter 2, I want to show you a passage real quick That will help us frame this because so much of what we're gonna be dealing with is going to be the ceremonial law in regards to the people of Israel and in Colossians chapter 2

We get this very interesting text talking about the

Levitical ceremonial Requirements festivals and feast days and stuff like that Colossians 2 6 therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink

With regard to a festival or a new moon or a Shabbat Sabbath These are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ So you've heard me say it many times

Old Testament types Shadows substance

Christ you can think of it another term for is to pass an

Anti to pass types and anti types so in the

Old Testament we have all of these very rich Types very rich shadows that you cannot properly understand apart from Christ and you have to see how it all plays in that being the case as we get into the book of Leviticus we are going to be looking at some very

Bloody gory Requirements there's going to be blood.

There's going to be burnt offerings. There's going to be incense there's going it's just all of the substantial bells and smells of Well Mosaic Covenant Judaism and all of them are in one way or another pointing to Christ if you miss it, it just sounds like a bunch of Minutia, it sounds like something that is just gonna trigger the people of PETA the people, you know

People for the ethical treatment of animals and we're going to get into some kind of a weird Discussion now about animal rights and things like this.

God Doesn't care about any of that in these senses. Remember he's the creator

So as we work our way through this what we're going to start with is We're going to look at the terminus.

We're going to look at the book of Hebrews we're going to start partway through chapter 6 and we're going to note that when it comes to priestly activity that Jesus is our great high priest and in the

Levitical priesthood In order to be a priest you have to be a member of a genetic descendant of Aaron That means you are of the tribe of Levi Jews today still keep track of who's related to Aaron if you know anybody who's

Jewish and their last name is Cohen You've heard of the Cohen brothers Cohen Cohen means priest

So somebody with a last name of Cohen, that's just a simple easy way to remember. You're a

Levite Now all of that being said the Levitical priesthood is kaput. It does not exist to this to this day it ended

Almost 2 ,000 years ago. Not quite 70 AD is when it was brought to an end

Totally stopped and you remember last week in our gospel text Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple and then connects it to and kind of smooshes it with together with The end of the world and the

Great Tribulation That is still coming and we do find ourselves in tribulation even in this day

But there's you'll note that the devil's little season is yeah is quite violent at the end

But all that being said it's important for us to note this if Jesus is our priest

How is he our priest? Now for some of you this is going to be review For some of you this might be review and then kind of a deeper look in this

There is a story given in Scripture of a king of the tribe of Judah who attempted to do priestly duties

Does anyone know the story off the top of their head? Mm -hmm.

Nope, not Cora. This is going to be in the times of the kings of Judah Let me do a little

I did not create a tab for this ahead of time. So let me do it this way The person in question is

Uzziah and If you remember the the story and I think

I want this one from second Kings our second Chronicles Yeah, second

Chronicles 26 if you want to turn over there second Chronicles 26 now if you know the one of the famous chapters of The book of Isaiah in the king that in the year that King Uzziah died

I saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple and Then he saw the seraphim the burning ones crying

Kadosh kadosh kadosh. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God of Sabbath oath of armies

However Uzziah is mentioned Positively and negatively in scriptures in second

Chronicles 26. Keep in mind Uzziah is a direct descendant of King David and Here's what it says about him

Let's look at his start all the people of Judah took Uzziah who was 16 years old made him the king instead of his father

Amaziah he built a loth Restored it to Judah after the king slept with his father's

Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 52 years in Jerusalem His mother's name was

Jekyll I am of Jerusalem And he did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his father

Amaziah had done He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah who instructed him in the fear of God And as long as he sought

Yahweh God made him prosper As far as teachers go

Zechariah is a man of note. I mean you could not ask for a better Person to study the scriptures under at this time than Zechariah and so you know that he got off to a good start now starting in verse 6 and concluding with verse 15 we get some of the exploits of King Uzziah in the early part of his reign and now it takes a very dark turn in verse 16

When Uzziah was strong he grew proud to his destruction For he was unfaithful to Yahweh his

God and he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense and the altar of incense now

We've read in Exodus that the it was the sons of Aaron who are the ones who are given to burn the incense

And so you'll note that despite the fact that Uzziah has been catechized very well by Zechariah he is not staying within his limits and you'll note his desire is to participate in the worship of Israel He has not asked for the privilege of going behind the veil to put the blood of the of the sacrifice on the mercy seat at All that's not what he's asking

He's merely asking for the privilege of actually taking for himself the privilege to offer

Incense which is offered several times a day and you know You think of the psalmist where he says let my prayers rise before you as incense the lifting up of my hands as the evening

Sacrifice and so you'll note that on on a just a cursory look at this

One could try to make the argument that King Uzziah was only seeking to worship

God But note he was doing so in a way that was forbidden by God because of his lineage

He is of the house of Judah you cannot offer these even incense in the temple of the

Lord unless you are a consecrated and ordained Son of Levi put into the office to do these priestly duties

So what he's doing he can't do by virtue of several facts

But most importantly he's of the tribe of Judah, which is where the king comes from So he grew strong to his destruction.

He was unfaithful to the Lord he entered the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense as Uriah the priest went in after him with 80 priests of Yahweh who were men of valor and I love the fact that here you've got these priests who are opposing the king and Historically, especially in the ancient world in the ancient

Near East those who would oppose a king or a monarch Generally found their lives cut very short this would oftentimes be the last thing they ever did and so you'll note then that the priests are

Opposing the king at the risk of losing their own life and God commends them by calling them men of valor

They withstood King Uzziah, they said to him it is not for you

Uzziah to burn incense to Yahweh But for the priests the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense

Go out of the sanctuary for you have done wrong and it will bring you no honor from Yahweh Elohim Then Uzziah was angry

Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense And when he became angry with the priest leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of Yahweh by the altar of incense

Nazariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him and behold he was leprous in his forehead and they rushed him out quickly and he himself hurried to go out because Yahweh had struck him and King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death and being a leper

He lived in a separate house for he was excluded from the house of Yahweh and Jotham His son was over the king's household governing the people of the land

Pretty severe punishment. He's lucky to actually be alive But he's a leper the rest of his life, which means nobody can come into his presence without becoming ceremonially unclean this leprosy forbids him then keeps him from Participating in the worship life of Israel for the rest of his life

So he is from the tribe of Judah. He cannot do the priestly functions

How is it then that Jesus Christ? Who is a direct descendant of David he is the lion of the tribe of Judah How is it that he is our priest?

different priesthood Yeah, knock is the deck correct Yeah, so this is where we got to pay attention to this so the

Aaronic priesthood is type in shadow and It's pointing to the true priesthood, which is

Christ now We talked about this up, you know, maybe six eight weeks ago that there is this strange doctrine that that runs around out in Evangelicalism today and and Don Conveyed at the time that he had heard that recently on the radio this idea that when

Jesus is bleeding on the cross That somehow some of his blood trickled down from the cross into a crevice, you know on the hill of Golgotha and hidden underneath the

Cross on Golgotha was the actual Ark of the Covenant and his blood touched the mercy seat

No, no text says that I know Tom's like Yeah, no that that's an actual popular teaching

But that that's not true at all So in reviewing all of this we have to keep in mind the fulfillment and I know again some for some of you

This is going to be review But I'm trying to provide a little bit more of an expanded look at this review as we consider then

The fact that Jesus Christ is our high priest and he serves his priestly functions

And we noted this in the book of Exodus. He serves his priestly functions not in the tabernacle

Not in the temple in Jerusalem and the reason we noted this when we were working our way through the book of Exodus is specifically because The tabernacle and the temple were copies

They were not the real thing The real thing is in heaven

And so now we'll consider his priesthood and again consider the appearance of this strange fellow in Scripture So that being said

Hebrews 6 will start in verse 13 and Slowly work our way back through it

Get this is a kind of head of steam as we get into the book of Leviticus When God made a promise to Abraham since he had no one greater by whom to swear

He swore by himself saying surely I will bless you and multiply you and thus Abraham having patiently waited obtained the promise

For people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose

He guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie

We who have fled for refuge might have strong Encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us and so you'll note

If you ever any of you seen like one of those movies like Bruce Almighty or remember

George Burns in the movie Where he played God What is it called?

Oh God. Yeah, I have a hard time with that name, but you know, there's always a throwaway line when when

God appears in a movie and God will make us promise and he says I swear by myself You know and everyone chuckles and thinks that's hilarious

But the funny thing is is that that's actually what happens is that when God gives a promise There's no one greater that he can to make an oath by so he makes an oath by his you know

By his on his own name on his own authority There is no one greater and that's kind of the idea and then you'll note then that it is impossible for God to lie

And that when God makes these types of promises They're given so that we who have fled for refuge

Into him to him that we might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us and then you'll note that one of the

Undercurrents major themes if you would of the book of Hebrews is this idea that faith is confidence in God a growing confidence growing encouragement that he will make good his promises and We live in a day where if you express

Confidence and certainty in your own salvation in the death resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins or if you are

Confident enough to say that I am forgiven that Christ has bled and died for me

There are some who will hear that and say you are the most arrogant person on planet

Earth Who do you think you are and I get it, but the problem is is they've misidentified it

We as Christians we have no confidence in ourselves We have confidence in the promises of God we have confidence in the mercy of Christ and so you'll note that this is

Encouraged for us to do and when we speak thus when we speak in that way with that Confidence and certainty and all this type of stuff people are gonna mishear it and think that you are totally arrogant

And you just sit there and go. Yeah. No. No, I I don't have any confidence in me. I'm the problem

Jesus is the solution and I'm confident that he's the solution. That's kind of the idea. So That being said you'll note that it's right there in our text for us verse 19 we have this as a sure and a steadfast anchor of the soul a

Hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain We're kind of invited behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf

Having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek Melchizedek All right.

Now we like I said, we've done this fairly recently. So we remember Melchizedek after Abraham rescued

Lot and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and the five kings that went against the four

Melchizedek shows up out of nowhere And Melchizedek is the guy whom

Abram tithed to He is the priest of God most high

Melchizedek and when he arrives what were the two things that he had with him that were of note bread and wine

You're gonna be shocked how many those two things come together in the Old Testament bread Wine a priest that nobody has even heard of he makes a cameo appearance and then

Whoosh disappears and you'll note then that in the

Psalms Particularly, let me see if I can find this real quick Psalm 110,

I believe Psalm 110 Yeah, here it is

And you'll note that this is a this is a psalm of David and it's a messianic song and I love this the interplay here in the

Hebrew of the you know And this is one of the reasons that actually this psalm is one of the reasons why I do not like the fact that our

English Bibles follow the tradition that was created by the

Pharisees and That tradition is is that when God's name appears we don't say his name

We say Lord instead But interesting thing in the Hebrew the

Lord Yahweh said to my don't I Yahweh said to my

I don't I I know but Two different words.

So the first Lord capital L capital O capital R capital

D That is the name of God Yahweh the second

Lord Adonai is what we think of when we think of like a

Lord or a Master or a king or something like that and what's funny is we lose it

We kind of lose the impact of what's being said here because Jesus himself quotes this psalm against the

Pharisees He quotes him against them. You know, how is it the David says?

That the Lord said to my Lord He uses this exact theology this phrase ology here

So Yahweh says to my I don't I sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool

We're dealing with Jesus Christ here So Yahweh sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter rules rule in the midst of your enemies

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in Holy garments from the womb of the morning the dew of your youth will be yours

Yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek So, you know

David prophesying regarding Christ. This is clearly about him and This is kind of a fascinating Two words together, you know, it's hyphenated.

See if I can point this out to you It's hyphenated Melchi hyphen is a deck king of righteousness

Melchizedek literally means the king of Righteousness, right?

I wonder who that could be. So he shows up in Genesis the king of righteousness and it also just so happens that he's also the king of Salem the king of Shalom The king of peace

We so you got the strange thing going on here And so you'll note then the prophecy of Psalm 110.

Is that the Messiah? The Lord who Yahweh said sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool

That he is a priest not according to Aaron, but he's a priest according to the order of Melchizedek So Jesus has a different priesthood and the

Aaronic priesthood all That time that it was up and running was pointing to Jesus's priesthood chapter 7 of Hebrews This Melchizedek the king of Salem priest of the

Most High God met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and he blessed him and to him

Abraham Apportioned a tenth part of everything He talking about Melchizedek is first by translation of his name king of righteousness

Melchizedek and then he is also king of Shalom of Salem that is the king of peace he is without father or mother or Genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life

But resembling the Son of God he continues as a priest for ever

Who does that sound like? hmm Hmm sounds a lot like Jesus now

It's from here that I want to launch into a slightly more complicated topic and that is rightly

Understanding the incarnation of Christ and I feel that this is absolutely necessary to do a little bit more of an in -depth study yes at the beginning of our introduction into the book of Leviticus because When we talk about Jesus So many people have a false understanding of Christ that their

Christology if not overtly heretical is coming really scarily close to becoming heretical so when we say that Jesus is

The son of David, what are we referring to? Say it louder

Genealogy, okay, so he's the son of David Let's take a look at a text real quick and we'll come back to Hebrews 7 in a while But Romans chapter 1 consider what the

Apostle Paul writes Verse 3 concerning his son God's Son who was descended from David according to the flesh and He was declared to be the

Son of God in power According to the Spirit of Holiness by his resurrection from the dead

Jesus Christ our Lord So when we talk about Jesus Jesus is

God and he is man How many

Jesus's are there? one Now here's the analogy when any of us

Dies it is the ripping apart of our body and our soul and You'll note then that while we are alive

We have both a soul and a body and they interact with each other in a way

That is so they interpenetrate in a way that there's only one of you There's not two of you.

There's one of you and So the body doesn't become the soul the soul doesn't become the body but they are united in the one

Person and I'll use the Greek word here hypostasis Into the one person that you are

There's not two Maryland's Maryland the soul Maryland the body there is only

Maryland the person who is comprised of a body and a soul you with me so far

Now when it comes to Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is one person and he has a full human nature, which is going to include a body and a soul and so it's important to note that he has a human soul and the divine nature come together in the one person who is

Jesus Christ and they Interpenetrate in such a way that there is only one person and yet There's not two of them

There's only one of them and they do not become like a third Substance like if you were to take the color blue add it with the color yellow you gal get the color green

So the idea here is is in the coming together in the incarnation There is one

Lord Jesus Christ who is both God and man Which the the unity of the person is so complete that Nothing that Jesus does and I mean this not a single thing that he does

Can he do apart from his divine nature? including blowing his nose combing his hair

Brushing his teeth working with his dad in the carpenter's shop

You kind of see what I'm saying here So everything that Jesus does he does by virtue of the fact that he is the one person

With two natures that make up that one person With me so far just like you have a body and a soul now there is a very deadly teaching that is running rampant through evangelicalism today and this teaching says that Jesus Performed all of his miracles by in one way or another laying aside his divinity and All of the miracles that he performed he did by virtue of the fact that he was a man

Who was indwelt by the Holy Spirit the same way we Christians are now

If you haven't heard this Chances are you will give it time This is like the heresy of the day that's running through the church right now and What this doctrine does is it turns

Jesus into and I mean this like the ultimate example of what it looks like to be a spirit -filled charismatic

Pentecostal Christian and By him being it showing us what's possible

We are supposed to now operate in miracles the way he did But here's the issue can

Jesus lay aside his divinity Did he lay aside his divinity?

No, and so here's where it's going to get interesting We're going to take a look at some passages in light of the fact that scripture reveals that in the one

Lord Jesus Christ There are two natures and you'll note then one of the things we know about God From what the

Old Testament says about God is that God is unchangeable the

Highfalutin theological phrase we use for God in that sense is then God is Immutable God doesn't change

God doesn't mutate God stays the same So the question then is is that when it comes to the virtue of the fact that you have the divine and the human nature

In the one person of Jesus Christ How then are the attributes of each of those natures kind of distributed or work within you work with each each other?

so the best way to put it then is is that Jesus who has a divine nature the divine nature cannot change so none of the attributes of the humanity that Christ has can be imputed to the divine nature instead

The human nature is the one that receives the benefits of being united with the divine.

Does that make sense? So the the attributes of divinity they can be shared by the humanity

But it doesn't go the opposite way just goes one way and so in that regard

I want to show you a couple of passages Because this has everything to do again with Melchizedek and we'll talk about this in a minute we're gonna look at I Want John Chapter to John chapter 2

By the way If in order to disprove this idea that Jesus didn't do any of his miracles by virtue of his divinity how many vert how many?

Examples do you need to prove the whole thing bunk? You just need one and this will be the one

We're familiar with this one on the third day There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee the mother of Jesus was there

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples when the wine ran out the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine and Jesus said to her woman

What does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come his mother said to the servants do whatever he tells you now

There were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification each holding 20 or 30 gallons

Jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water They filled them up to the brim and he said to them now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast

So they took it When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from Though the servants who had drawn the water knew the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him

Everyone serves the good wine first and when the people have drunk freely then the poor wine

But you have kept the good wine until now this the first of his signs

Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him

According to verse 11 who performed the miracle Jesus He did this in order to manifest whose glory

His own it says his own he did this to manifest his own and As a result of him manifesting his own glory by him performing this miracle the disciples believed in Him how was

Jesus able to Take water and a lot of it and Turn it into the best wine ever he did this by virtue of his divine nature and This text is unmistakably clear

Now in the incarnation then we have some strange things That happen as far as our language is concerned.

I want you to take a look at Luke chapter 1 Luke chapter 1 and We're going to note the account of when

Mary who was pregnant at this point with Jesus comes to visit

Elizabeth and Here's what it says and you'll note strange language here

Luke 139 in those days Mary arose went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah.

She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the

Holy Spirit and She exclaimed with a loud cry. So you're gonna note that what is going to come next is an ecstatic response

Literally by virtue of the fact that the Holy Spirit had filled her so you can think of this as a prophetic utterance on Her part

Blessed are you among women? Blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is it granted to me that the mother of my

Lord? Should come to me Does God have a mommy?

No, and now yes You see you see how this is kind of interesting one of the ways in which you can detect an ancient heresy the

The ancient church came up with a phrase and they would refer to to Mary as the

Theotokos the God -bearer And or you can say mother of God, you know, that's kind of how it gets translated today and we hear a phrase like that We go

You know this this smacks of Roman Catholicism's false Mariology, but it isn't

So there's Jesus Christ as a fetus in the womb of Mary and He is already both

God and man so when Mary gives birth in One sense you can say

Mary gave birth to God it's incomplete

Because she didn't give birth to God. She gave birth to the God -man She gave birth to Jesus Christ who has both a human nature and a divine nature

He's one person so you'll note then that there's strange language that occurs in Scripture that if you don't properly understand how the incarnation works and how within the one man

Jesus Christ There are two natures and they do not co -mingle in a way where they create a third substance

But they Interpenetrate each other in such a way that you can literally say there's only one

Jesus That that this is going on and now you can Elizabeth can say An ecstatic utterance under the unction of the

Holy Spirit How is it that the mother of my Lord which is a term of deity?

Should come and visit me You see the gate something's really changed here and it's important for us to see this now another example

Yes. Yes She she uses the word courios

She uses the word curious, which is the Greek word. This is not out and I this is curious right and For a

Jewish lady to refer to someone as her lord in this sense is not talking about Adonai It's actually goes back to the concept of Yahweh my lord

Yeah, mm -hmm

Mm -hmm. No, no, no, he had done he had done a single one yet We don't know

Yeah So this is this is this isn't all of the exegetes kind of work through this and have to really struggle with it because here's

The thing it doesn't say we don't know if Jesus winked at her. We don't know

We don't know what's going on If we I kind of like to think of it in those terms because it doesn't say how she knows he's gonna do something

But she knows he's gonna do something and yet he says to her Gune woman, you know, my time is not yet.

Come. I almost think Jesus said woman. My time is not yet come You know, right

Just do what he says. Yeah, there's some kind of nonverbal communication going on here

And we don't know if it's of the Holy Spirit. We don't know if it's between Mother and son, you know, and that's a tight connection, you know, so We don't know.

We just we honestly have no we do not have a definitive answer. We just know that she knew Yes, yes exactly now

We're coming up on Advent and our church is already wonderfully decorated for the upcoming

Holiday season and so we will again hear the prophecies regarding Christ The Virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son and call his name what?

Emmanuel Yeah God with us and That's who

Jesus is He is God with us and Yet he's also the son of David You see this is not an either -or this is a both and and you can't mingle the two in fact it's almost improper theologically to talk about Jesus in the abstract by Kind of tearing up his his two natures.

You have to keep them together But you can note where the divinity clearly is having an impact on the humanity

You know that by virtue of the facts we call that by the way the communication of the attributes so, you know,

Elizabeth says Why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord? Term of deity in this case should come to me, which is a strange way to talk now another passage

I want to pull this one in while we're doing this is in John chapter 8 One of my favorite passages of Scripture and one that is ultimately very politically incorrect today because Jesus is having a

Heated discussion With the Pharisees and the Jews. Yeah, let's just say that things are they're not getting along so well

And so the dialogue is just a wee bit on the combative side Shall we say but Jesus does something here that also

Clearly demonstrates kind of how in the one? Messiah in the one man

Jesus Christ. There are two natures at work And this is another example of where we can see

Jesus's divinity at work, which means he didn't lay it aside So we'll start in verse 31

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him if you abide in my word

You are truly my disciples and you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free now

When Jesus talks this way of his words who's he sounding like God and Remember the

Jews are a people of a book You know, they have the Torah the

Nevi 'im They have the Ketchuvim they have history the writings the prophets the

Torah the right, you know right So they they're fully

I on board with this concept of the Word of God and Jesus is talking about his words in a way that is well

Getting them a little uncomfortable. And so if you know my words, you are truly my disciples

You'll know the truth and the truth will set you free Set you free in the sense of you were slaves.

They immediately kind of jump on him at this point So they answered him. We are the offspring of Abraham.

We've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say? You will become free

See that they're not buying it. So Jesus answered truly truly I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin

The slave does not remain in the house forever the Sun remains forever. So if the Sun sets you free you will be free indeed,

I Know that you are the offspring of Abraham yet. You seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you

I speak of what I have seen with my father and you do what you have heard from your father

So they answered him again, this is a fascinating interchange Abraham is our father.

Jesus said to them that Abraham is our father. Jesus then said to them Well, if you were

Abraham's children, you'd be doing the works that Abraham did But now that you seek to kill me a man who's told you the truth that I heard from God This is not what

Abraham did you are doing the works your father did now a little bit of a note here

Anyone find it a little bit odd that Jesus is talking about Abraham in such familiar terms

He's talking as if he knows Abraham like really well Yeah Yeah, at least yeah, yeah

Jesus did have dinner with Abraham at least once right, but see here's the thing How old is the body of Jesus Christ at this point?

30s. Yeah, he's in his early 30s Has the physical body of Jesus Christ live long enough to have dinner with Abraham No So, how is it that Jesus with his physical mouth is?

speaking to these people as if he knows Abraham The only way this is possible is by virtue of what's called the communication of the attributes the divine nature in the one man

Jesus Christ is Communicating to the human nature and the one person then is speaking as if he knows

Abraham. Does that make sense? so clearly Jesus is speaking in a way that he could only speak by virtue of the fact that he in the one person he is united with the divine nature as well and This is where it gets so interesting

So they answered and so he said all right if you were Abraham's children You'd be doing the works that Abraham did now they get a little upset.

So they said to him we were not born of sexual immorality We have one father even

God Jesus said to them. All right, if God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? Well, it's because you cannot bear to hear my word

You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desire. Yeah, that's right

Jesus actually said to them they were children of the devil Could you imagine social media would blow up on this, you know

You think people hate Trump If this happened today, oh man, you know people would forget about Trump for a while All right, so you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desire

He was a murderer from the beginning does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him and when he lies he speaks

Out of his own character. He's a liar and the father of lies, but because I tell you the truth you do not believe me

So which of you convicts me of sin if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

Whoever is of God hears the words of God The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God And you'll note how

Jesus now is talking about his words and God's words interchangeably So not you know

It's practical synonyms and you just woven them together in this last part as equals his words and God's words are the same

Now this does not go well for him So the Jews answered him are we not right in saying that you are a

Samaritan and that you have a demon? Why this is getting personal, right?

So Jesus answered I don't have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me

Yet, I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it and he is the judge Truly truly

I say to you if anyone keeps my word he will never see death

So the Jews said to him now we know that you have a demon Abraham died as did the prophets yet You say if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death

Are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets who died?

Who do you make yourself out to be legitimate question? So Jesus answered if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing

It is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is our God But you have not known him and I know him if I were to say that I do not know him

I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word Your father

Abraham Rejoice that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad Where's that in Genesis?

It ain't there That ain't in Genesis Where did

Jesus get this information from his human nature hasn't met

Abraham and here Jesus is giving straight -out information about Abraham that is extra biblical and is quite personal and So now the

Jews capitalize on this. So the Jews said you are not yet 50 years old and you've seen

Abraham The light goes on there's just no there's no mistaking it Has the flesh of Christ seen

Abraham? No But has

Jesus seen Abraham? Yes So you can see here in this exchange where there's information attributes of the divinity that are shared with within the one man who is

Christ so that Jesus the God man is speaking as if he knows Abraham You can see how the uniting of the two natures in the one person then is is interchanging and it's in the language

I know this is complicated is everyone's head blowing up Yes, and he's man.

Yes Yes, this is kind of demonstrating how in the incarnation the two natures that make up the one

Christ are Interacting with each other so that we don't end off without the conclusion of this story

So the Jews said to him you are not yet 50 years old yet You've seen Abraham and the answer is yeah, actually he has but not with his physical eyes

Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you before Abraham was I am

You're gonna note here It's unmistakable what Jesus is saying because he's invoking the divine name of God From the burning bush

Moses is all alright So you want me to go and tell the people of Israel that? God's gonna rescue from slavery and I'm supposed to go to Pharaoh and say let my people go says

Yahweh, right? What's your name God and the name that God gives is

I Am so you'll note before Abraham was

I Am but Jesus is not yet 50 years old.

How can he? You see I'm saying it's just wonderful Christology, but you have to see it in light of the two natures that are the one

Christ You have a question All right

Correct that's that's a succinct way of putting it So this is where the cross -references are going to help them

Okay, is that prior to the incarnation God does not have a body

Son of God does not have a body He appears in the form of a body Yeah He appears in the form of body, but it is it is only it is only the divine nature that is appearing there

The one man Christ does not appear in human history Until he is conceived in the womb of the

Virgin Yeah, yeah, he's got real well, we'll talk about this more next week this was like chapter 1

There's more to discuss and believe it has everything to do with Leviticus But I want to make sure we get this milk is a deck fellow

Kind of sort it out which by the way come back now to our text that we were looking at in Hebrews Let me find it real quick.

I guess I have to go back Hebrews 7 And we'll kind of end here to kind of frame it

Listen to the discussion about Melchizedek in his appearance and ask yourself.

Is this the God man or is this only the deity? So watch for this

Melchizedek king of Salem priest of the Most High God met Abraham Returning from the slaughter of the

Kings blessed him and to him Abraham a portion a tenth of everything He is first by translation of his name king of righteousness.

He's also king of Salem. That is king of peace He is without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life

But resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. So you'll note then that when Melchizedek shows up All of the attributes that are described regarding Melchizedek in his appearance in Genesis are that he is without father mother

Genealogy neither having beginning of days or end of life. That's the divinity and He resembles

The Son of God But he is not yet God incarnate you see how that works

He's the pre -incarnate Christ and if emphasis on pre -incarnate Right Right.

Yeah, all of the descriptors for Melchizedek No genealogy, no beginning of days.

No father mother. That's all that's deity and Then we'll take a look at some other theophanies next week in the

Old Testament to kind of flesh this out pun intended So, all right, we'll leave it there.