Programme: Believers’ Convention Prayer Meeting (Week 4_Day 3)
Date: Wednesday, 26th July, 2023
Transcript Summary
1. "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:" (Heb. 5:1). The things “pertaining to God” speak of things that are “part of" God. These things are the part in God. The High Priest (Jesus) functions as an agent of these things because He became a glorious High Priest. This dimension of priestly vocation is not an ordinary one; it is about Jesus who is the full Priest of glory – the Minister of the true tabernacle. He is the High Priest who offered Himself for us so that we can come into the ministry of reconciliation.
2. “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Heb. 5:4). "Honour" as used in this Scripture also means "glory". The priest being referred to here is specifically a priest of glory. Before one can officiate or supervise the season of men being brought to a place where they can break free from sins at this pedigree and take the part of God, such must have received glory. This is why one does not take the honour to become this kind of priest by one’s own volition. Functional priests in glory are the ones authorized to reconcile sins; they make reconciliations for iniquity.
3. “Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. [3] And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.” (Heb. 5:2-3). Reconciliation is a way and we must know this way. Those whom God admits to 'offer' in this ministry of reconciliation are men who can be touched with the feeling of infirmities. Hence, the first disposition of a high priest is that he is compassed with infirmities so that he can have compassion on others. Later on, he comes into another dimension where he will no longer be compassed with infirmities but he can still be touched with the feeling of infirmities. Our Lord Jesus offered Himself for our sakes; this is why He has become so glorified.
4. A man who is out of the way is out of reconciliation. This way is grace, and it is the help a man needs. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. 4:15-16). Grace is the cleansing reagent and that is what the High Priest gives when He appears (1 Pet. 1:13). The fulcrum of the book of Hebrews is the appearance of the High Priest (Heb. 9:28). The time of need is the season of help. Another word for help is succor (2 Cor. 6:2). The accepted time is the time of need; it is also the day of salvation when we are succored by the High Priest. The day of salvation is now.
5. These things must be well detailed so that we can be free from sin and appreciate the ministry of the help coming from God. There are things responsible for helping a believer. We need a High Priest who has so much to give and is willing to. Our senses need to grow to know how to receive from Him. The ministry of "drawing near" ought to come more to us (Heb. 7:19); this is because the nearer we come the more tangible the impact of the priestly ministry of Jesus.
6. "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." (Heb. 2:17). Unless things pertaining to God are in place, the ministry of reconciliation is not yet set. Things pertaining to God are used to reconcile the sins of the people – God's people. God's people are still with sin regardless of their status; this is why they should move to become a people who are reconciled and are without sin. It is at this point that reconciliation has been made.
7. There are things that can only be done in God's presence, one of which is reconciliation. Jesus has been in presence but a season came when He had to enter presence for us, which was a different ball game. Jesus was trained to be made perfect, and when He was made perfect, He broke into God’s presence in a stronger measure. After He was made perfect and was to ascend to God, Mary wanted to touch Him but He did not permit her because He had become a spotless lamb and needed to appear first before God (John 20:17). Jesus is a higher Lamb; He is a Lamb of Eternal Life. Jesus was first a Lamb of everlasting life, but now He is an eternal Lamb.
8. When Jesus asked that the cup of His death should pass over Him, that was a temptation under the weight He was carrying. But Jesus overcame that temptation because He agreed to the cup of death. Likewise, we should not break because of Satan's assaults. We should carry whatever burden till the end. All those who are bearing weights should not give in because it was done in trust. God puts trust in us to break the characters that we are used to.
9. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36). Everlasting life is the first commitment of all things pertaining to God, and it is done in trust. When God is committing life to us, He is relying on us to ensure His life finds expression on earth. God checks us because He does not want us to disappoint Him. We must stay in the heat until His will is done. His will must be done in us until we become instruments of trust.
10. "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. [20] For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." (John 5:19-20). This is the world of those who have been called to presence, which is known as the world of the beloved. It is not easy to bring people to the beloved. The beloved are those who can respond to and keep love. What goes on here is loving God. To have an entrance into the beloved of God is by permission. Mercy brought us in. We found help because immediately one comes to the beloved, one has come to a zone of help and succor.
11. Before the High Priest became glorified, the Father brought Him to a state where He began to show Him things that the Father Himself was doing – life and everlasting life. This life and everlasting life is now in the Son; that means what the Father was doing was the Son. The Father was building the Son in His image and likeness. God made Adam in a kind of image and likeness, but He made the original image in Jesus. This measure of work done in Jesus cannot be done in a believer who is a baby because he cannot respond to it.
12. To commit the extent of work done in Jesus to a natural man would be an act of foolishness because a natural man cannot do it (1 Cor. 2:14). God uses “spirits” to fabricate His image in the soul of a man. This cannot be done via a natural activity; it is a spiritual one that takes place in the heart of a man.
13. No man knows the things of man except the spirit of man (1 Cor. 2:11). This means the spirit of a man knows what is in his heart. If a minister is not strong in doctrine, he cannot save men from things that take the heart. Satan has murdered some people in the heart. The heart can take the spirit, soul and body into the lake of fire because it controls the entire activity of the spirit, body and soul. The final verdict of the heart is what the spirit will become eventually; this is why we are admonished to keep our hearts (Prov. 4:23).
14. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:” (Isa. 1:18-19). The good of the land is everlasting life. To come and reason with God is to come to have life. This is the ministry of reconciliation – the exercise of letting go of evil things that were given to us by the adversary. These evil things (which are sins) became our inheritance. So the essence of reconciliation is for us to change our inheritance from sins (Satan's things) to God’s things (righteousness).
15. When a man is reasoning with God, God takes him on so that He can exchange thoughts with him. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways (Isa. 55:8). Thoughts are “snow” while ways are “wool”. When God gives a man thoughts, it is to lead him to ways. When thoughts have become ways in a man, it is established; this is when God has actually raised a man up and quickened him.
16. “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself…” (John 5:26). To have life is the work of the Father. To work is to have life; this means for God to give life is for Him to work. The table of the heart is where God works. When a man is in love with God, then God will help him to see the iniquity that is in him (his heart). The heart of a man can see many things. There is a vision upon the hearts of men that only God can cast down. The High Priest needs to appear to our souls so that wrong imagery can be stopped in us. The image of the glory of this world needs to be cast down.
17. Our Lord Jesus must have encountered high portions of the ministry of grace to be able to see what the Father was doing. When the Father appeared to the Son, grace was given to Him; that was how He became full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Jesus needs to appear in men. This is why ministers of the gospel should keep preaching the Son (both in word and character) until His image is born and made real in men.
Blessings!