Our Jewish Mediator*

 

This Memorial weekend, we remember that there are only two people who were willing to die for you:  Jesus, who died so we could live, and the American serviceman or woman, who died so we could be safe and free.

This week, we continue with the exploration of our Jewish faith. Today we will learn about our Jewish Mediator. At the core of Jewish worship in the tabernacle was the priesthood and their mediation role of applying the blood of sacrifice, which was the blood of animals, upon the Mercy Seat to make atonement for the sins of the people. In this role, they were a type and shadow of a Mediator to come, Who would mediate between sinful people and their holy God, for all have sinned. The earthly priest's application of the animal blood of atonement in the earthly tabernacle would need to be repeated yearly. However.

as promised by God, He would send a Mediator, Who, with His own blood, blood that is far better than the blood of animals, would be the sole Mediator between God and man. His blood would not need to be applied yearly, but once and for all ages (Heb. 9:25-28). His own blood offered for atonement, is the finished work of God, completed from the foundation of the world.  (Heb. 4:3, Rev. 13:8). Because of these things, Jesus is the Mediator of a better covenant, established upon better promises, as God said:

"...I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people."  Heb. 8:8-10, Jer. 31:31-33, Zech. 8:8

As Paul told the Church to pray and make intercession for all men (see also 2 Pet. 3:9), especially for those in authority, he gave this reason:

"For this is good and acceptable in  the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."   1 Tim. 3-6

This Mediator, Jesus, ever lives to make intercession for us, and is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him (Heb. 7:25).

We come to our Mediator, Jesus, through the same Jewish faith that began with Abraham, and caused Abraham to believe God, and to be accounted righteous because of it:

"Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."  Gal. 3:6-9

This same faith of Abraham, brings us to our Mediator, Christ, who was promised to all nations through Abraham:

"But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe...before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up (shut up on all sides completely, a shoal of fishes in a net) unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed....But after that faith is come...for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For sa many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ."   Gal. 3:23-27

The Jewish law kept us until faith came. By faith, we then came to our Jewish Mediator. We became children of God through this faith in Christ, and as we are Christ's, also then we are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise given to his seed (v. 29).

Christ fulfilled the pattern given by God to the children of Israel, and believed by the same faith of Abraham. The faith that is accounted unto righteousness. This is our Jewish faith.

 

*The above is based upon the 5/26/19 message to the Church from Dr. Kenneth Stevenson.

 

To Contact/Submit prayer requests/Support the ministry/Order the book, "NAZAH":

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To watch/hear Dr. Stevenson's complete message:

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https://everlastingcovenant.sermon.net/main/main/21320220
 

Prayer of Salvation for all who desire to receive Jesus as their Savior: Lord Jesus, I desire to know You, and to know Your salvation. I believe that You died for me, and that You were resurrected for me. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my heart, change me, fill me with Your righteousness. Inscribe my name in the Lamb's book of life. Baptize me in Your Holy Spirit, so that I can learn the truth of Your Word and ways, and be strengthened in my walk all the days of my life. You are the hope of my life, and You are my eternal life. I place my trust in You, Lord, for myself, and my whole household. Use me to do the will of the heavenly Father, Who sent You, in Whose name You came. In Your name, and in thanks and praise I pray, Amen.

 

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Yom Kippur:Atonemen, and Reconciliation with God

The Veil That Separated the Holy of Holies

 

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement. It is the second of the fall feasts of the LORD. It is considered the most sacred of the feasts. It comes at the end of the ten days of awe that began with the Feast of Trumpets, or Yom Teruah. Yom Kippur is a time of fasting, and repentance. It was also a Sabbath day of rest from all work (Lev. 23:27-32). Offerings were made, and on this one day of the year, the high priest could go behind the veil, a heavy curtain, that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple. There he would sprinkle the blood of the animal sacrifice on the mercy seat, which sat upon the ark of the covenant, which contained the law. This blood was the atonement blood for the sins of the people. This sprinkling of the atonement blood would have to be repeated every year. That veil of the temple represented the separation of the people from God because of sin. The Hebrew root word in regards to the word "veil" here, means "to break apart, fracture, severity, crushing".
As with the temple, the priesthood, and all of the feast days connected with them, the Israelites were given a pattern to copy after the heavenly temple of God (Ex. 25:9, 40, Num. 8:4). Paul also mentions this earthly pattern that copied the heavenly original:
"Who (the priests) serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount."  Heb. 8:5
Because all of these earthly things are shadows that were made after a heavenly original, they carry the promise of the greater heavenly original. and that heavenly original surpasses the earthly copy in every way!
For this feast of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, the shadow of the earthly priest after the order of Aaron, has been surpassed by a heavenly Priest, Who is unlike them. The heavenly Priest, Jesus Christ, is of the order of the eternal, supernatural priest, Melchizedek (meaning "King of Righteousness"). Melchizedek was not only a priest, but a king as well, who brought forth bread and wine. He was and is an incarnation of Christ who appeared to Abraham, and received from him the tithe of all (Gen. 14:18-20). The Psalms identify the Lord Who sits at the right hand of the LORD God as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110:4). The Apostle Paul also further identifies this eternal priest as Christ (Heb. 7:21-22). The oath, the hope, the promise of a priest that surpasses earthly pattern of the priests was fulfilled in Christ. Those priests of the order of Aaron died, but this Priest after the order of Melchizedek lives and serves forever:
"But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."   Heb. 7:24-25
Unlike the earthly priests, who can only go behind the veil one day a year (Heb. 9:7), Christ is ever making intercession. He went behind the veil of separation in the heavenly Temple, not to offer the blood of bulls and goats as a temporary relief from sin, but to offer His own blood upon the mercy seat once, forever:
"...for this he did once, when he offered up himself...by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood 0f Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"  Heb. 7:27, 9:11-14
The hope of the more perfect heavenly atonement, and reconciliation with God promised in the pattern of this feast of the LORD, has been fulfilled beyond anything that could be imagined by men through the atonement of an eternal Priest, Christ, with His own blood in the heavenly tabernacle. He obtained a more excellent ministry, was established as the mediator of a better covenant, established upon even better promises than the former, earthly copy (Heb. 8:6). An awesome God established His promise of atonement for sin and reconciliation with man in this feast of Yom Kippur, and fulfilled that hope and promise through His own Son.
The atonement, and the reconciliation is available to all who come to God through Christ. God is long suffering towards us, not willing for any to perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). As the earth is tried with great storms, earthquakes, floods, fires, and more, the hearts of men are being called by God to repentance and for salvation. To all who are of the Jewish people, to all who are of the Gentiles, to all who desire to share in this fulfillment of the promise and hope of the eternal atonement and reconciliation of Yom Kippur: Let us not keep Him waiting any longer.

To Contact/Support the Ministry/Submit Prayer requests/To Order the Book, "NAZAH":
https://twitter.com/everlastingcov8
http://endtimeschool.com/
To Watch the Complete Message by Dr. Stevenson:
https://twitter.com/everlastingcov8

Prayer of Salvation for all who desire to receive Jesus as their Savior:Lord Jesus, I desire to know You, and to know Your salvation. I believe that You died for me, and that You were resurrected for me. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my heart, change me, fill me with Your righteousness. Baptize me in Your Holy Spirit, so that I can learn the truth of Your Word and ways, and be strengthened in my walk all the days of my life. You are the hope of my life, and You are my eternal life. I place my trust in You, Lord, for myself, and my whole household. Use me to do the will of the heavenly Father, Who sent You, in Whose name You came. In Your name, and in thanks and praise I pray, Amen.