Thoughts on Hebrews 6:13-7:28

This paper will address two questions: 1. What is the significance of the priesthood of Jesus [ a high priest after the order of Melchizedek] for a 21st century audience? 2. What contemporary preaching or ministry implications and applications do you see in the discussion of Jesus’ priesthood in Hebrews 6:13-7:28?

The significance of the priesthood of Jesus, particularly a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, for a 21st century audience is an assurance of the benefits that Christianity claims for its adhernets. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, those that enter into a relationship with Him, do so as new creations, completely made over from the inside out because of His work on the cross. Those of us living in the 21st century need to reminded of the significane of this sacrifice especially since we are so far removed from the actual crucifixion event.

A couple of things from this passage from Heb. 6:13-7:28, as well as the preceding several chapters jumps out at me. The ability of Jesus as a high priest to sympathize with the human condition resonates with me, and I know as a long time non-believer, seeing the Divine as able to understand human suffering and pain helped establish an interest in the person, and work of Jesus Christ. Through the first few chapters of Hebrews, the author, writing to Christians is careful to make sure that this congregation understands that Jesus really relates with where they are and can handle the problems of life, no matter who big or small. It is reassuring to me that Christians at times have the same questions and doubts that non-Christians do. Another thing that caught my attention is the meaning of the name of Melchizedek. The author of Hebrews is careful to tell us that his names “king of righteousness� and as the king of Salem, his name also means “king of peace.� I think this is important in that it speaks to Christ’s work on the cross and through his resurrection and the author puts it this way in Hebrews 2:11, “Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.� While we love to preach that Jesus is our Savior, we need to keep in mind that He is at the same time our Sovereign and set apart from sinners in that He has passed through the heavens and now intercedes on our behavles. Another thing that jumps out at me that is significant for a 21st century audience is that in our world of hurry and worry, the writer of Hebrew mentions that Jesus as a high priest meets our need. Our deep soul hungering need for salvation. Solomon touches on this in Ecclesiastes when he states, that “God has set eternity in the hearts of men.� The writer of Hebrews states that not only does Christ as high priest meet our need but then goes on to demonstrate how He does this, by saying, that Christ is “holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself� (Heb. 7:26-27). I would also like to add here that throughout this section (actually throughout the whole book) the author of Hebrews connects the story of God’s people with the larger story of God culminating in the person and work of Jesus Christ. I think this is huge for 21st century audiences in that it helps to see God at work in human history as a real and active force in history and as people to come to acknolwdge Jesus as Savior and Sovereign they too will see themselves as characters in the unfolding drama of God. God observation

I have to include the following quote from Thomas Long about the priesthood of Jesus, especially for its signinfance to our conversation:
“Not only do we frequently make a mess of our lives, but even when we are at our best, even when we press ourselves to the limit to give and to serve and do the right thing, it still seems insufficient. We can never do enough, achieve enough, love enough, give enough, have enough, be noticed enough. Someone is always standing in judgment over us – parents, teachers, employers, strangers, our inner selves – putting us on trial, deeming our efforts to be unacceptable. So day after day we are condemned to trudge to life’s altar with a new offering, but it is never satisfactory.

The good news of Jesus’ high priestly ministry is that he placed on the heavenly altar, once and for all, not only his life but – astonishingly – ours too. He gathered up our hunger for approval, and he lived a life truly pleasing to God. He took our restlessness, and brought us to the place of Sabbath rest. He carried the human condition and placed it as an offering to God – not the ravaged, broken, humanity that we have made of ourselves, but humanity healed by his own faithfulness, humanity as God intended at the creation, free and joyful, at one with itself, others and God� (Thomas Long, Hebrews: Interpretation, A Biblical Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, p. 90).

2. What contemporary preaching or ministry implications and applications do you see in the discussion of Jesus’ priesthood in Hebrews 6:13-7:28?
Some of the contempoary ministry implications I see from the discussion of Jesus’ preisthood in Hebrews 6:13-7:28 is the need to communicate the story of the Old Testament to our congregations. Sometimes the language of Scripture is difficult to discern without a proper understanding of symbols, customs, etc., and pertinent to our conversation here has been this notion of Jesus as a priest, a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. This concept of priesthood is foreign to most 21st century readers in that our culture being so saturated with secularism and not predominately Jewish would find the language of priesthood set to an OT backgroud difficult to grasp. I think the importance of clergy though to our nation cannot go unmentioned, and in light of the Catholic church scandel with its priests who have gotten into a lot of trouble, as well as Protestant ministers who violate laws and the Scriptures has created a lot of confusion and skepticsim towards clergy, this section of the priesthood of Jesus serves to remind us of the scope and nature of the work of Christ. Number one that Jesus is larger than our preconceived ideas about priests and clergy, and that while ministers today are imperfect, He is not, and just as prone to sin as the priests prescribed by OT law were, those who serve in churches today are just as prone to sin. Number two, because Jesus is larger than our brokenness and frailties we can rejoice at Heaven’s best having been offered to clean humanity’s sin. This whole section seems to be pointing to the grandness of Jesus Christ, and the colossal size of God’s plan that trumps even the worst of our efforts.

On the gospel, community and such…

This part of my response to a discussion from one of my classes. The first half this post is one I’ve written before, I thought it was relevant to the later conversation about community.

If the Gospel is such good news, why do we mope around our auditoriums and church
hallways on Sunday and Wednesdays? Where is the excitement that accompanies the
missional nature of the Gospel? Have we too quickly placed our enthusiasm for Jesus,and even talking about Him to others in the same place we’ve placed our Bibles and song books? On the shelf. Like song books and our Bibles we’ve allowed the Gospel to become nice decorations that give the church a sense of sacred. Kind of a McDonalds approach to the nebulous, messy arena of Christianity. “I’ll take three church hymns, and little bit of Jesus, easy on the convicting of sin, and could you add, some cheese with the whole bread of life thing.” Does that sound absurd? Sure it does, but is it any less absurd than the pseudo-gospel we’ve allowed to permeate our theologies, and how we live, and relate with one another and the world at large?

Maybe it’s time we unpack the gospel, see the contents with all it’s good-news, and begin to live as though we were re-enacting the story of the Jesus in our lives.

Maybe it’s time we see the cross anew, and are struck with a sense of awe, unity,and power in weakness. Paul wrote to a church in conflict, that the message of the cross was foolishness to those who were perishing. We have sure acted like we could live without Jesus and his cross.

Maybe it’s time we once again admit that we “need”, or maybe should I say “crave” Jesus Christ. Our hungering and thirsting has constantly reminded of us of our desperate situation before and without God. We’ve tried to fill our lives with a little bit of what the Gospel offers, but that hunger pain, and those parched lips of yours are a constant reminder of something more that we are routinely missing when we let routine and tradition cloud our longing for Christ.

Community is no doubt important from DeSilva’s reading as well as from the text. We
can’t worship fully without the community. Community is fundamental to everything we
do. This fractured, limping body known as the Church is the hope of the world. We need to take Christ’s words to be salt and light more seriously. Not only do we take Christ more seriously, we recognize that as humans we were created for community. While it’s true that we can pray and read the Bible on our own, we need the identity of the community, the prayers of the community, and the strength of the community to make it along in this crazy world.

Knowing the situation that recepients of the Letter to the Hebrews were facing, the
Preacher writes a stunning letter of exhortation to not give up meeting in community. He realizes the value of togetherness, and I think this notion of identity speaks of the social bonds and relationships that permeated the ancient world. People then as now operated in the realms of relationships, whether familial, militarily, professionally, community was important, and since the church provided a place of connectivity, and togetherness, the church as a collective bunch could also be a place to recharge weary batteries, and provide safety to the Christians battered and bruised by hostile neighbors and culture.

The bottom line, community is to important to give up on. Despite all its ills and
problems, the Church is the body of Christ, and is the second incarnation of Christ to a world desperate for a taste of God.

Good defense of the TNIV

Dr. Curt Niccum provides a good defense of his recent review of the TNIV, a new version of the Bible that helps make the Word of God more meaningful for those who have never read the Bible.

Here is a little bit of the article:
“Over the weekend I received a number of generally negative responses to my comments about the TNIV. I do not question the sincerity of these men and appreciate the concerns they have. For the sake of some readers, though, who might misinterpret my position, I offer in greater detail some of my reasoning on the issues raised. I have, however, no intention of getting into a debate.

Below is the text of the first comment:

Curt, I just read your article in the Christian Chronicle on the TNIV and after reading it I read some of your past entries on your blog. I see that you were very surprised and even said you “do not understand the uproar surrounding the…TNIVâ€?. I do not know why you don’t understand. Many of our great scholars in the church have spoken out against these newer versions. Brother Foy E. Wallace use to say they are not versions at all but perversions and this is not a blasphemous statement as you alluded to.
These versions are perversions and you are standing up for them and endorsing them. You state that you like the TNIV’s translation of Rom.
3:25 “blood – to be received by faithâ€?. That clearly changes the meaning of the passage and advocates faith only but it does not surprise me that you would like that change since you are ready to take baptism (Mark 16:16) out of our English Bibles. You say that “every translation is commentaryâ€?.
Does this mean you can not understand the Bible unless you know Hebrew and Greek? We might as well resort back to the dark ages and start chaining our Bibles down to the pulpit again because the average person is unable to understand it. The NIV and TNIV are both perversions of the scripture (They clearly teach Calvinism). Even great scholars such as Bruce M. Metzger recognized that these new versions were lacking. In his book the “The Bible in Translationâ€? he wrote this about the NIV “it is surprising that translators who profess to have a high view of scripture should take liberties with the text by omitting words or, more often, by adding words that are not in the manuscriptsâ€?. I do not have a problem with preachers saying that these versions are “satanicâ€? or the “HIVâ€? of Bible translations because like the HIV virus they are deadly and could cause someone to lose their soul. ‘

Curt counters this brother’s crtique very well, read his response here:

All of this stems from his recent high marks he gave the TNIV in the Christian Chronicle.

cultural tsunami?

Why have our churches become content maintaining the status quo, and why aren’t we are on the forefront of societal and cultural change? I think it’s possible that if the Church got serious about our missional calling we could effect a cultural tsunami. The world we live in craves spiritual experience, will allow our assemblies to become places of Divine encounters or just continue to be dispensers of information? Len Sweet, at the Tulsa Workshop talked about how commerical enterprises have gotten good at offering experiential products. He noted that anything that works in this culture, is E.P.I.C. Experiential, Participatory, Image Rich, and Connected. What a great time to be the Church, we can offer so much to our culture. Will we ride the wave of cultural hunger and be the one’s feeding the weary masses or will we will sit on our thumbs watch opportunity pass us by?

Blogger ate my post…

Earlier today, I tried to post an update of the last few days, and my post is now somewhere lost in cyber-blog-space. Oh well.

This past weekend, I was able to attend a little of the Tulsa Workshop, and spent most of my weekend at LTC. The little of the workshop I got to attend was awesome. Wade Hodges’ class on syncing up with our culture, and Len Sweet’s semeotic awarness (reading the times) and the exegesis he did on Starbucks were the two of the best classes I sat in on.

LTC went well. I was so proud of the way our church’s kids behaved at the hotel, and the way they carried themselves throughout the grueling weekend. I know LTC is designed for the kids, but it’s the parents and the volunteers that are really modeling Christ like leadership, sacrifice, and service. Our congregation’s participation in LTC wouldn’t be possible were it not for these folk’s hours of sweat, and service. Thank you LTC volunteers.

Now, it’s on to refocusing on family, my health and graduate studies.

Another school shooting…

It’s being called the worse school since Columbine. Today in Minnesota, a young man went on a shooting rampage, killing ten and then killed himself. You can read the article here:

As a youth worker, my heart breaks at the news. What prompts teenagers to kill their peers? I know there has been survey after survey, research upon research. But, what can we do as youth workers to help prevent these sort of tragedies?

Pray regularly for our students. I am not just talking about the kids in our youth groups, but the entire school population in our communities. Establishing a good relationship with public schools is also a must for youth workers. We need to have a presence on school campuses. We also need to be aware of the kids that walk into our buidlings. Teachers are trained to notice out of the ordinary things, and behaviors of their students. We as youth workers need to also know to look for warning signs, and out of place behaviors. I know that above suggestions aren’t exhaustive, but the more the people of the light invade areas of darkness, the less and less territory the darkness will control. There are no doubt countless thousands of students that go to schools each day on the brink of mental and emotional breakdowns. While not every student will hear the Gospel preached or even see it lived out autentically, it is still our job to make a difference in the communites in which we reside. Will me rise to the challenge? I hope so.

I ask that you pray for that Minnesota community, the families of the students who were killed, and of course for the family of the young man that lost control and ended the lives of other young lives as well as his own. God help us to make a difference.

111144782203704024

All the planning and I’ll admit, worrying over our congregation’s efforts to participate in LTC are coming together. Everything just sort of seemed to click last night and some of the loose ends I had been fretting over aren’t loose ends any more. The people at our congregation are great people. If any of ya’ll happen to see this post today, know that I appreciate all your hard work and sacrifice to get this year’s LTC off the ground.

Since I am in an appreciate mood. Let me say “thank you” to Unlce Sam for our tax return this year. We were able to pay off a nagging hospital bill and still have money left over to pay other bills! Whew Hoo!!

Jennifer had a doctor’s appointment the other day, a check up to see how the body is progressing and such. Our daughter was curious about all the neat things in the doctor’s office, and was mesmerized by the sound of her siblings heart beat. We don’t know what we are having yet, but we should be able to tell ya’ll by April 5.

The resurrection and its implications…

At some point whether as an unbelievers seriously investigating the events surrounding the life and death of Jesus Christ. You are confronted with one serious problem. Jesus Christ is reported to have been resurrected from the dead. What one does with Jesus in light of resurrection determines one’s eternity. Either Jesus was who and what He claimed and his miracles testified, or he was the biggest and most successful hoax to brush across the human landscape.

We aren’t only the people to question the validity of the gospels testimony concerning Jesus’ resurrection. For there were certainly those in the first century who doubted the resurrection, and Paul has this to say to the people of Corinth about the resurrection:

“12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Cor 15:12-19).

Paul says that if Christ hasn’t been raised than faith is useless and moreover, he is lying about God. And in verse 19, makes the striking statement, that if in this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. A couple of observations, the last thing a devout Jew, raised his whole life on the Torah would want to do is to lie about God. To falsely testify about Jehovah would be an abomination. He says that if the resurrection isn’t true our faith is useless. That sure doesn’t bring me any comfort. How about those in the first century, and the one’s that follow that were tortured, lost property, maimed and killed all because of their hope in a resurrected Jewish carpenter? Either the resurrection is true or these people and those that follow in their footsteps are seriously deranged. And lastly, if in this life we only have hope in Christ. Cross my name of the roster. What kind of hope would we have, if the story of Jesus ends on Golgotha. A horrible ending, the supposed hope of the world dangling from a wooden cross. If Jesus was Immanuel (God with us), than this whole thing is some sort of divine joke, if indeed the cross is the end of the drama. But, the hope that inspired the early persecutor of the church, the hope that changed the apostles from dim-witted, cowards to bold proclaimers of the Gospel is that the story doesn’t end on the cross. Something, terrible and life shattering happenend three days after the death and burial of Jesus. The tomb were Jesus was laid was found empty, grave clothes lying in the place where just a few days early, followers of Jesus had carefully and tearfully wrapped their beloved Master. The tomb was empty. The body of Jesus was not there. Angles proclaiming what was to good to be true announced his triumph. “He is not here, he has risen.”

This marvelous news has since gripped the hearts of all those that claim allegiance to Christ. The resurrection has implications for you and me and all those that walk in the footsteps of their Lord. The resurrection demands that we become imitators of God as dearly loved children (Eph. 5:1). The resurrection demands that we place more trust in the eternal than in the temporal things of this world. The resurrection demands that our actions speak louder than words. The resurrection demands that we tell others of this marvelous life changing, life shattering news. Jovan Barrington has some great ideas to share about the resurrection, you can check them out here.

Why the retelling of the Moses story in Acts 7:17-44 is important for grasping the structure of Luke-Acts as a whole.

The retelling of the Moses story in Acts 7:17-44 is important for grasping the structure of Luke-Acts as a whole in that “Luke has selected and structured the Moses story so that it matches exactly the story of Jesus and his witnesses� (Writings, 224). Johnson goes on to point out that “Moses’ story falls into three stages. At the time when the promises to Abraham were about to be fulfilled (Acts 7:17), Moses is sent by God to ‘visit’ the people (ie., to ‘save’ them). They are ‘ignorant’ of his identity and role, so they reject him a first time and he must flee into exile (7:23-29). While in exile, Moses is empowered by God and sent back to the people a second time. He leads them out of Egypt and through the desert with ‘signs and wonders.’ But they reject him and his words a second time, preferring an idol made with their own hands. As a result, those who reject him this time are themselves rejected (7:39-43)…This is striking enough, but the connection between Jesus and Moses is made absolutely clear. At the heart of the Moses story we find the same sort of kerygmatic statement made elsewhere about Jesus (Acts 7:35-37):

This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ God sent as both ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush. He lead them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up� (Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament, 224).

A little later in the same chapter, Johnson adds, “The pattern of the Moses story provides the fundamental structure for Luke’s two volume work. In the Gospel, we read the story of God’s first sending of the prophet Jesus to ‘visit’ his people for their ‘salvation’ (Luke 1:68; 7:16; 19:44); of their initial rejection of this salvation, out of ignorance; and of Jesus’ being ‘raised up’ from death. In Acts we find his establishment in power signified by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the sending of his witnesses filled with that Spirit, and the second offer to Israel of salvation ‘in his name’ (Acts 4:12; 5:31). This time, the cost of refusal is separation from God’s people. The pattern also shows us the precise reason the Jerusalem narrative is so dominant and critical: it is in Jerusalem that the first rejection, the empowerment, the second offer, and either acceptance or rejection by the people all occur� (Writings, 225).

Johnson adds, “if Acts gives us Luke’s interpretation of his Gospel narrative, then we can expect to find in his Gospel, with stricter constraints, the same understanding of Jesus as a prophet like Moses� and then provides an example that points us back to the Old Testament prediction of Moses that God would raise a prophet like him. Johnson, cites, Luke 7:11-15, the story of Jesus raising a widow’s son from the dead, and the conclusion of the story in verse 16, “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ And, ‘God has visited his people!’� (Writings, 225). Johnson also alludes to the Transfiguration, and to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and their encounters with Christ and the language used in each case is reminiscent of the language of Moses’ prediction of a coming prophet.

Faith is more than pew-warming…

Faith is more than pew-warming. James said it first, not me. He chides the recipents of his epsitle for the lack of action. Sure, they knew all the right answers. They could quote Bible, book, chapter and verse of course. But when it came time to put faith in action, some in the congregation just warmed the pew. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widos in their distress and to keep onself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:26-27), and he goes on to write in chapter two, verse 14 and following, ” 14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. 20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

A couple of observations:
Genuine, Biblical faith, will emulate Jesus Christ. Sometimes, being a person of faith demands that we get our hands and feet dirty for Jesus. Faith demands that we go places that make us uncomfortable to help those in need. Faith demands that we don’t merely attend Bible classes and worship services but that we infiltrate our communities with the compassion and mercy of our Savior. The Church is full of folks who have faith, but the Church and our world needs more people who are willing to leave the safety of the pew for the turbulent world of poverty, starvation and illness. James’ words hit home this morning. Let’s move forward in faith, and be the people of God that faith demands we be.