STUDY THEME: JESUS: OUR ALL-SUFFICIENT SAVIOR. 3-27-05
MARK 16: 1-3, 4-5, 6-7; HEB. 7:23-25, 26-28; 9: 11-12, 13-14.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO MARK 16.
Although Jesus completed the work of redemption on the cross, He is continuing work in heaven where He serves as High Priest for His people. Jesus died to redeem, but He lives to intercede. All people need to understand the fact of Jesus’ resurrection and its continuing meaning and relevance to their lives.
The Bible teaches that Jesus rose from the dead and that both angels and humans testified that it really happened. The Epistle of Hebrews explains how His resurrection really happened. The epistle of Hebrews explains how His resurrection gave Jesus the power and authority to serve as the High Priest in heaven for those who believe in Him. Everyone needs a High Priest to provide access to God, and Jesus is the only High Priest God accepts.
Christians do not worship Christ merely because He rose from the dead. Other people, such as Lazarus or the widow of Nain’s son, were brought back to life and no one venerates them. Unlike the others, however, Jesus rose from the dead of His own power and will. Jesus’ resurrection, like His death, was on behalf of those who trust in Him.
Jesus also rose from the dead never to die again.
Just as Jesus conquered sin on the cross, He conquered death in His resurrection. Now He ever lives on behalf of His people. Mark 16 records the event of His resurrection to life, and the two passages from Hebrews in this lesson reveal that He now serves in heaven as a faithful High Priest before God for all who put their faith in Him.
PLEASE READ MARK 16: 1-3.
In the first 8 verses of this chapter we have a vivid picture of events in the earliest hours of the first day of the week, following in which our Lord was crucified.
Darkness covered the earth when Jesus died on Calvary; and darkness filled the hearts of His beloved disciples. The light of their lives had gone out. As Jesus had foretold in Mark 14:27, they were as sheep without a shepherd. Probably they cowered somewhere in the city of Jerusalem; wondering what they should do now. Where should they go?
The story is told that, on the day that Wellington of England met Napoleon at Waterloo, arrangements were made to relay the outcome of the battle from one ship to another, by semaphore, across the English Channel.
A group of men stood anxiously waiting on the shores of England. Suddenly, the ship closest to the shore began to signal the message. Letter by letter, the anxious men on the mainland read the words: “Wellington defeated….” Then a bank of fog cut off all view of the ship—was that all? If it was, that could mean the end of England. After some moments, moments that seemed like hours to the waiting Englishmen, the fog cleared away and the signaler began his message over again. “Wellington defeated Napoleon.”
This story is a vivid illustration of the experience of the disciples following His death upon the cross on Calvary, the only message that the disciples could read was: “Christ defeated….” But, on the first day of the week the resurrection morn, the whole message came through: “Christ defeated death!”
If the central message of the Gospel could be summarized in two brief sentences, they could well be these: “Christ died for our sins,” and, “Now is Christ risen from the dead.”
The cross has long been recognized as the symbol of our Christian faith, but the empty tomb is no less significant.
Paul summed up the matter when he wrote: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”
By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead we mean that His body was lifted out of the tomb by the power of God and that He lives again.
Someone has said that the gospel story of Jesus began with a miracle---the miracle of the virgin birth, and ended with a miracle---the miracle of His bodily resurrection. This is what the N.T. clearly teaches. This we believe.
The resurrection of Jesus, therefore, is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. To quote Paul again: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.(Rom. 10:9)
Not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus means not to believe in Christ as Savior. And, indeed, not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to have no assurance of our own resurrection from the grave.
Early on Sunday morning following the crucifixion, some of the women who had ministered to Jesus in Galilee sadly made their way to the tomb of Joseph to anoint the body of their Master. The Jews had a way of counting days inclusively. Assuming that Jesus was crucified on Friday (and it must be remembered that the Scriptures do not specifically tell us on which day of the week our Lord was crucified) then Friday would be counted the first day; the Sabbath, the second day; Sunday, the third day.
Usually the bodies of loved ones were anointed at the time of death, but there had been no opportunity for these friends of Jesus thus to honor Him. Belatedly, therefore, they went forth to perform this traditional ceremony that meant so much to the Jews.
On the dawn of the first day of the week---after the Sabbath was over and they could move about once again—they made their way to the tomb to perform this act of love. After such a long time, the women surely expected to find that the body had already begun to decompose.
Three of them went together carrying their spices. Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had once cast seven demons, led the way. Her gratitude for what Jesus had done for her surely led her to express her thanks one last time in this very personal way.
Two other women were with her: Mary, the mother of James the lesser, and Salome, who may have been Jesus’ aunt, His mother’s sister. Unlike most of His disciples, these women had never abandoned Jesus. They endured the awful scene at the crucifixion and watched Him die.
As soon as it was sunrise on the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb. The time would have been around 5:30 in the morning. Merchants would have already been selling items as evidenced by the fact that the women had just purchased spices.
In their bereavement, the women had overlooked one very practical matter. How could they gain access to the tomb?
It was the custom in those days to seal a tomb against intruders by rolling a large circular stone before the entrance. As they neared their destination, the women began to say to one another, “Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? They would need help. Little did they know that their problem had already been solved and that the reason for their journey had become unnecessary.
PLEASE READ MARK 16: 4-5.
These women were likely still depressed over Jesus’ death. Their world had been turned upside down. Having witnessed Jesus’ trial, beatings, and crucifixion, their hopes of what Jesus might have done were extinguished. Looking up implies that these women had been looking down---which is what people walking to the tomb of a loved one might very well do.
As the women came closer they were astonished to see that the stone was rolled back already and the entrance plainly revealed. Their first thought, we know from other accounts, was that the tomb had been rifled by the enemies of Jesus, and the body stolen, and carried elsewhere.
But as they entered the sepulcher they beheld “a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment.” His presence filled the women with a strange alarm. Little did they understand at the moment that this young man had been present at the creation of the Universe. His was eternal youth, for he belonged not to earth but to heaven. Job says in Job 38: 7 “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Who had moved the stone from the tomb’s entrance? It was very large and would have required several strong men to manage it. The Gospel of Matthew in Matt 28: 2 solves the problem for us: “An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone.”
PLEASE READ MARK 16: 6-7.
No doubt this messenger was an angel, one of God’s special messengers. The fact that the women were frightened is further indication that the man was an angel messenger.
What a message he spoke to them! As is typical when an angel appeared to a human, the angel first told them not to be afraid. Then came the message. “Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified”---the angel knew that these women had followed Jesus in Galilee and had seen His death and burial. “He has been resurrected!”
The angel further said, “He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him.” When the women looked, they realized that the body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb. The angel gave them a message from the risen Lord: “Go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him.” Peter was singled out because of his three denials of Jesus
Recall that Mark probably heard much of the story of Jesus from the lips of Peter. How it must have gladdened Peter’s heart to report the announcement of the angel as he said: “But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.” The risen Lord wanted His disciple to hear the glad news, especially Peter.
Doubtless, the shame of his denial still haunted Peter. He wondered whether his Lord would ever forgive him for his inexcusable cowardice. Here was the answer. Of course he was forgiven; and Jesus would see him again in Galilee. The words, “as He said unto you” reminded them that Jesus had predicted both His death and His resurrection.
In spite of Jesus predictions, the disciples were not expecting Jesus to be raised from the dead. The women did not go to the tomb expecting to discover it empty and to hear that Jesus was alive; they went to anoint a dead body. When the women delivered their message, according to Luke 24: 11, the disciples did not believe them.
Even when the other disciples had seen Jesus alive, they could not convince Thomas. All of them had to see the Lord alive in order to be eyewitnesses. The Gospels and 1 Cor. 15 tell of various groups and individuals who saw the living Lord during the 40 days before His ascension.
Our faith in Christ’s resurrection is based on the empty tomb and on Jesus’ appearances to His followers. Another way to say it is that the resurrection faith is confirmed by a book, a day, and a people. The book is the N.T., which is the inspired testimony of those who saw Him alive. The day is the Lord’s Day, which only the resurrection on the first day of the week could have led Jewish believers to worship on Sunday rather than Saturday. The people are believers of all times which take organizational form in the churches.
The message that the women were to take to the disciples and Peter was that Jesus would meet them in Galilee where they could see Him again. The message that Christians today must carry to everyone is that Jesus saves sinners who believe in Him, that He has gone ahead of them to heaven where He intercedes for His people, and that His people will be reunited with Him one day.
PLEASE TURN TO HEBREWS 7.
PLEASE READ HEBREWS 7: 23-25.
The connection between the two focal passages from Mark 16 and Heb. 7 and 9 is that Mark reports the historical events of Jesus resurrection, and Hebrews reveals that the risen Savior is now in heaven serving as High Priest for those who believe in Him. The writer of the Book of Hebrews explained Jesus’ ministry on earth and in heaven in light of the O.T. priestly system.
In ch. 7 the writer contrasted the ministry of O.T. Levitical priests and the continuing life and ministry of Christ.
Heb. 7:23 refers to the O.T. priests who descended from Levi, the son of Jacob whose tribe was appointed to the priesthood in Moses time in Deut. 18: 1-5. Many priests had for centuries performed their duties. All the priests died, and others replaced them.
But that was not so with Jesus. Because He was resurrected from death, never to die again, Jesus holds His priesthood permanently. Death will not interrupt and terminate Jesus’ priestly office as with the Levitical priests. Therefore, (the writer made a wonderful conclusion): Jesus is always able to save us because He always lives to intercede for us.
Priests had an integral role in the worship of God in the O.T. They represented humanity to God. They offered sacrifices on behalf of the people, which anticipated a day when God Himself would offer a sacrifice once and for all time that would pay the penalty of sin.
In the meantime priests would take the blood sacrifices the people provided from their animals and offer them to God so His holiness would be satisfied. The wages of sin is death, and the sacrifice portrayed that atonement had been made---at least temporarily.
The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote to a Jewish audience to explain that the old covenant points to Jesus and that Jesus’ covenant superceded it. In every way the new covenant established through the blood of Jesus is better than the old covenant.
One way the new covenant is better is in the priesthood that administers the covenant. The O.T. is filled with references to priests. These priests were from the line of Aaron and the tribe of Levi. They ministered in the tabernacle or later in the temple, fulfilling the demands of the law about the offering of the sacrifices and whatever else the Law of Moses demanded.
But there was something else the priests did: They all died. This is why the O.T. mentions so many of them. They could not remain in office because they were prevented by death. With so many priests throughout the long history of Israel, the people were bound to have some who were honorable and some who were wicked. The O.T. contains references to both kinds.
But Jesus remains forever. Because of His resurrection, He has conquered death already and will never die again. Furthermore, because He is God, He is holy and always does what is right. This is why He holds His priesthood permanently.
In O.T. times it would have been terrible for an unscrupulous priest to live forever. He could have continued taking advantage of people and making a mockery of the sacrificial system. Jesus lives forever and can be trusted with a permanent priesthood.
Because Jesus rose from the dead and lives forever, He is always able to save those who come to God. No one will ever come to God for salvation and find that he or she cannot be saved because Jesus is asleep, or on vacation, or because He has died. Jesus is a priest who represents His people before God at all times.
An important detail emerges from the text when the passage says that Jesus is able to save those who come to God through Him. In other words, no one can come to God in any way except through Jesus Christ. Some may wish to come to God through some other god or religious system. Many today want to come to God through their own righteousness and good works. But this passage indicates that God saves only those who come to Him through Jesus.
The purpose of Jesus’ ministry now is to intercede for those who come to God through Him. He always lives to do this for us. He does not intercede for those who attempt to come to God any other way. But for those who come to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, trusting that He alone has paid the penalty for their sins, He always intercedes on their behalf.
A modern audience may have difficulty understanding the notion of priests and intercession, but one may think about it in a slightly different way. To say that Jesus is the intercessor is to say that He is the basis of a relationship between God the Father and sinful people. As Peter put it in 1 Peter 3: 18, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm.”
PLEASE READ HEBREWS 7: 26-28.
Our great High Priest is different from human priests in another significant way. Like other people, the human priests---including the high priest---were imperfect sinners. Jesus was human: therefore, He was tempted, but He was without sin. Heb. 7:26 calls Him holy or pure, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Holy means to be set apart and to develop moral purity. God calls people to be holy as He is holy, but only Jesus fully achieved that kind of holiness. Harmless depicts His character, which is perfect and above reproach. Undefiled describes His relation to Himself. While on earth, Jesus was a friend of sinners. He still is their Friend.
In both His earthly and His heavenly roles, however, He was never one of the sinners. He is separate from sinners, tempted to sin but remaining sinless. Our High Priest also is made higher than the heavens or “exalted above the heavens.”
Because He was without sin, He did not need to offer sacrifices for Himself as the other priests had to do. Before offering sacrifices for others the high priest offered sacrifices for himself. Jesus, being sinless, did not need offerings for personal sins: thus, He could give His life for others. He was the perfect Lamb of God through whose blood we are redeemed.
The Jewish priests offered sacrifices daily, but Jesus did this once, when He offered up Himself. The high priest made an annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, and this was done year-by-year by a long list of high priests. But sin offerings were made daily. So whether daily or yearly, many offerings were made for the sins of the priests and the people. But Jesus as High Priest offered Himself only once.
We need to distinguish between His once-for-all offering and His ongoing role as High Priest. He offered Himself once and His death atoned for all sin—past and future. He continues His role as High Priest.
The High Priests were selected based on the law. God appointed Jesus as High Priest by the word of the oath. This oath was Psalm 110:4, which had been prominent in Hebrews 7: 21 “The Lord has sworn and He will not change His mind, You are a priest forever.” ”Thus this High Priest is the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.”
PLEASE READ HEBREWS 9: 11-12.
The significance of the earthly tabernacle is seen in the fact that it is an antitype of the heavenly sanctuary. God showed Moses the type or model of heavenly realities, and he, in turn, made an antitype of that model.
As the worldly tabernacle was a constant reminder of God’s presence among them for their personal redemption and service, so is the heavenly sanctuary our assurance that God in Christ is among us as our Redeemer and Leader in our Christian growth and ministry.
While our author’s chief interest lies within the veil, the typology includes more. Every piece of furniture in the Mosaic tabernacle corresponds to an element in Christ’s ministry for us. The shewbread is suggestive of Jesus as our constant source of strength. As He sustains our lives, we, in turn, are to dedicate them to His service.
The light of the candlesticks reminds us that Jesus is the Light of the world, and that from His light we are to receive enlightenment that we in turn might become the light of the world.
The altar of incense is symbolic of prayer, and the incense above the mercy seat reminds us of the intercessory prayers of Jesus by which we have an approach to God.
The contents of the Ark of the Covenant are no less suggestive. The holy manna reminds us that Christ is God’s provision for us to sustain us in our trials. Aaron’s rod is but a model of our inner witness that Jesus is our eternal High Priest appointed by God.
The tables of stone point forward to Him who is the fulfillment of God’s law. The mercy seat with the over-shadowing cherubim testifies that God in Christ has met with us for our redemption.
As Aaron ministered temporarily outside the veil only to enter within the veil to effect his ministry in God’s atoning work, so the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, for a little while, that He might enter through the veil into the heavenly holy of holies, where His presence at the right hand of God assures us of our redemption in Him.
The text is quite clear to the effect that the author’s primary interest lies in the fact that Christ is the fulfillment of the ministry of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. As such He is identified with man, yet has His priesthood from God. He has an unchangeable high priesthood in contrast to the temporal office of Aaron.
Over against the sinful nature of the old order, He is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” For Christ is “an high priest of good things to come”, who ministers in a tabernacle not made with hands. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
The author proceeds to enlarge upon this summary which, you may wish to read about in chapter 10.
For the present let us focus our attention upon the phrase in vs. 12, “eternal redemption.” Note first of all that the redemption, which Christ provides, is eternal in contrast to the temporal nature of the former as is seen in the annual repetition of the sacrifice. This refers not so much to the result as to the means.
What does the author mean by redemption? We cannot accept the medieval concept of God paying a ransom to Satan for the souls of men. But the language here and in Matt. 20:28, where a stronger form of the same word is used, definitely infers that a ransom was paid for man’s redemption.
We can better understand this truth when we remember that God made man for His fellowship of love and service. It is not an anthropomorphism to say that following the creation of His material universe, and the animals therein, God was lonely.
Being a Person, He found no fellowship with material things or with brutish creatures. As man was lonely without woman, so was God lonesome without man. Being a God of love, He needed someone upon who He could bestow His love, and who in turn could respond to it. Thus “God created man in His own image.” It was not an image of physical likeness but of spiritual kinship. As such, God could enter into fellowship with man.
In order to be capable of responding to this relationship, man was made free---free to love, free to serve, free to choose. For this threefold fellowship to be real there had to be an opposite from God to which man might choose to give his love and loyalty. It was in this regard that Satan entered the picture.
In the Garden of Eden Satan literally stole man from God. He stole his love and his loyalty. In making his choice between God’s Word and Satan’s word, man violated the fellowship, which he had with God. Being a God of love and mercy, Jehovah could not let the matter go at that. Being a God of holiness, He could not ignore man’s sin. Somehow the fellowship must be restored.
To achieve His proposed purpose, God was faced with a dilemma. His holiness must be satisfied. Since the wages of sin is death, someone must die to bridge the chasm between God and man. But such a victim must within himself be not only soulful, but also, sinless. Finding none among men who was worthy, there remained only for God himself to be both “just, and the justifier. God must pay the ransom, and it must be paid to himself.
As someone fittingly said, animal blood is impotent to cleanse man from sin in that it is immoral. Only the blood of Christ could suffice because it is moral. In the person of His Son, therefore, who became both the sacrifice and the sacrificer, or high priest. “He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
PLEASE READ HEBREWS 9: 13-14.
We now enter into the holy of holies of the epistle. All the foregoing evidence as to the superiority of Christianity over Judaism is preparatory to the solemn truth that the sacrifice of Christ is a better sacrifice than the sacrifice than the multiple offerings made by a succession of priests of the line of Levi.
Here
we look into the very heart of God wherein we find indelibly
inscribed the eternal purpose of God “Which
He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The sacrifices
of Judaism were not without effect. Even so they had their limits. We
have already seen that the repetitious sacrifice of bulls and goats
on the Day of Atonement served as a reminder of the continuing force
of God’s redemption of His people.
Our author does not delve into the mystery of the cleansing power of blood, merely accepting it as a truth of divine revelation. But he reminds us that these two rites, while effective, were designated only to sanctify “to the purifying of the flesh.” Being outward, they did not reach down in to the inner nature of man.
However, if the blood of dumb animals could in God’s power purify the flesh of man, how much more could the blood of Christ purge the inner nature of man, making him fit for God’s service.
This is true not only because His one sacrifice supersedes in effectiveness the many sacrifices of Judaism, but because of the nature of the sacrifice itself. In the former instance it was the unwilling sacrifice of unknowing victims. But in the case of Christ, He offered himself “through the eternal spirit,” a spotless sacrifice.
Spirit here in l0:15 does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to the spirit of Christ. His sacrifice was not outward and material, but inward and spiritual. It was not a rite but a reality. Because Christ was what He was in His eternal nature, His blood could be effective for determining the absolute realities for man.
In 1 John 1:7 the author says, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” In Hebrews 9: 22 we read “without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins.” There is only one thing that will stain the soul---sin. And there is only one cleanser, “The blood of Christ…cleanses us from all sin.”
NEXT SUNDAY FROM JAMES 1 AND 2 WE FIND WE NEED REAL FAITH.
A.V. DAUGHERTY
altav@swbell.net http://www.theweeks.org/av