Do you realize, Believer who trusts in Christ as Savior, that you are a priest? Did you know you’re a part of a priesthood of other priests? We call it the Church. Our priesthood has someone in leadership, called a High Priest. His name is Jesus. He is alive and well, and He is awesome!
This post being part 3 has a Part 1 and Part 2, which I highly recommend you check out. It’ll help give some good background on this topic.
Great High Priest
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV)
Jesus is our Great High Priest. He is the Son of God. He can sympathize with what we’re going through because He experienced humanity like we do. Some might say, “No way, He’s God. He couldn’t know what I’ve been through.” On the contrary, because He is God, He has felt everything you have felt, but try multiplying your feelings times 1000!
Jesus Felt What You Felt
Jesus lost his earthly dad to an early death. He worked for a living with His hands. He had a mom and brothers and sisters. Jesus celebrated holidays and was well-known in His town as the carpenter’s son. He had a close-knit group of buddies, and one of them betrayed him for money. Fitting in was not something He did well, and religious people didn’t like Him. Jesus felt like God abandoned Him and suffered a horrible death. (Read Psalm 22 for a description of what He went through on the cross.)
Because of what He experienced and because of His sacrifice for you, He gave you access to God. In fact, you get access to God’s throne of grace. The throne of grace is where we receive mercy and find grace to help us when we need it, and even when we don’t realize we need it.
King-Priest
“So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 5:5-10 (ESV)
We learn that God the Father appointed Jesus Christ His Son to be High Priest over the Church. Instead of following in the traditional priesthood of the Levites, He came through a different order, a royal one. Jesus descended from the tribe of Judah, not Levi. He came from royalty, being a direct descendant of King David, a man after God’s own heart.
King Melchizedek
Jesus’ priesthood came from the order of Melchizedek, who is mentioned more in the book of Hebrews than any other book. He pops into the Biblical narrative in Genesis 14.
“And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” Genesis 14:18-20 (ESV)
Abram, or who you know better as Abraham, encountered a king and a priest named Melchizedek. Abraham received a blessing from this King-Priest and gave a tithe (or 10%) of everything he had.
Melchizedek was likely the king of what we now know as Jerusalem. Back then it was called Salem, which means “peace.” He was the king of peace.
Prince of Peace
Jesus is called the Prince of Peace; He is the King of Kings; and He is the Great High Priest. He is the ultimate King-Priest. Jesus is the source of eternal salvation for you and for me. Our eternal salvation is called a “better covenant,” one that’s based on Jesus’ sacrifice instead of our deeds.
“This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” Hebrews 7:22-28 (ESV)
Anchor of the Soul
“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:19-20 (ESV)
In the Old Testament, once a year the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Covenant stood, to atone for sins with blood of an innocent animal. They would tie a rope to his leg in case he broke protocol and died while inside this restricted space. In case the unthinkable happened, they would pull the High Priest out of the Most Holy Place back into the Holy Place.
The three-part tabernacle, or later, the temple, represents our three-part being. The outer court represents our body. The Holy Place is like our soul. The Most Holy Place illustrates our spirit. We are created in God’s image. Because He’s three-in-one, so we are three-in-one: body, soul, and spirit. (Check out this post to learn more about your human spirit.)
So, in this analogy, the Levitical High Priest was anchored to the soul realm and only entered the spirit realm once a year.
But Jesus tore the veil for us and entered into the Most Holy Place, the realm of the spirit, as a forerunner on our behalf. Now, we get anchored into the spirit realm instead of the soul realm. In this we take after our Brother and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Shadow of Heavenly Things
“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. …They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. Hebrews 8:1-2, 5-6 (ESV)
The tabernacle became a physical representation of a Heavenly or spiritual reality. The writer of Hebrews says it’s a “copy and shadow of the Heavenly things.” In our day and our time, the Lord has put His presence inside of us, His Church. We are the Lord’s temple. The priests used to carry the Ark of the Covenant, representing God’s presence, using poles. The representation of God’s presence was moved around with human legs. Now, we are ambassadors and representatives of His presence, and we carry it around with our human legs. Do you see the connection?
Jesus Entered Heaven
“For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” Hebrews 9:24 (ESV)
If Jesus entered into Heaven through the veil of the Most Holy Place as a forerunner for us, then we are right behind Him. Jesus made the way for us; in fact, Jesus is The Way for us! (See John 14:6).
New and Living Way
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:19-25 (ESV) we are seated with Christ in Heaven right now!
So What
The writer of Hebrews also gives us a good answer to the question, “so what?” When we capture this revelation in our hearts, we see the proper response: we draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Our hearts are made clean; our flesh is cleansed by living water. We grab hold of the true confession of our hope without wavering, trusting that if God made a promise, He will keep it. And we keep loving and performing the good works God prepared for us. We stay encouraging. We continue to meet as a priesthood, as a body of believers in the unity of the Spirit.
You Have Come
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22-24 (ESV)
You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God through the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Is this your experience? If not, why not? I realize this teaching is not common nor this experience common. But what if the experience of coming to God on Mount Zion in Heaven is supposed to be normal for a Christian? What if it just takes belief? What if I believe that it is possible?
If you were surrounded by an innumerable amount of angels, what would it be like? What would they say to you? Perhaps you would glorify God together!
When we start to believe the spiritual reality of our existence in Heaven, we will start having Heavenly experiences. Jesus said, paraphrased, “Start thinking differently! The Kingdom of Heaven is in you and around you and closer than you think.” (Matthew 4:17)
Grateful for Receiving a Kingdom
“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV)
We are receiving the Kingdom of Heaven, and this Kingdom will not be overthrown. We have the privilege of offering God acceptable worship. As Jesus said, “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23).
The Lord desires us as priests to follow in the footsteps of our Great High Priest. I believe He wants us to enter through the gateway of Jesus into the spiritual realm, the Heavenly dimension, to worship Him in this place and in truth. He has made a way for us to be anchored into the spirit, into His Spirit, and He has Heavenly revelation and wisdom for us. That’s part of our inheritance, and that’s what Jesus paid for with His body and blood.
Let’s shift our thinking and thought patterns to more closely align with God’s. Seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first. Let’s search after the Lord with whole hearts and become like our Great High Priest Jesus Christ. And let me tell you, Friend, the fruit of this type of pursuit of God is amazing fruit. It brings love and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And it’s so worth it!
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