Tag Archives: high priest

Oh, what a tangled web (John 18:23), April 22, 2017

Today’s Podcast

Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. It really is true. Best to never entangle yourself, just as Jesus taught us.
Scripture
1. John 18:23
2. Jesus: If I have spoken incorrectly, why don’t you point out the untruths that I speak? Why do you hit Me if what I have said is correct?
Devotional
1. Do you remember the game called gossip?
  1. As many as are in the crowd, usually a dozen or more, sit in a circle
  2. First person whispers something in the ear of the person next to them
  3. The message is passed along around the circle
  4. See just how accurate the story is at the end of the circle
  5. Usually not very accurate
2. Gossip is a game but it’s worse in real life
  1. Little fibs that are told to one person or another
  2. Can’t remember what’s been told when it isn’t the truth
  3. The fib changes from time to time because it was fabricated
  4. Get caught in the lie and then reputation suffers as integrity is damaged
3. Jesus faced the high priest in trial
  1. Teachings were public
  2. Many probably recorded His teachings and took them back to the priests to argue about what He taught
  3. Never could win the arguments against what He said
  4. Always based in scripture which He knew better than they
  5. Challenged their authority because of His knowledge and actions to back up His knowledge
4. Just look at My record
  1. Show me where I’ve misspoken
  2. Point out the untruths that I’ve told the crowds
  3. Give an example of something I’ve taught that is contradictory to the scriptures
  4. Give evidence that supports the need for punishment
5. None could be found
  1. Even witnesses paid to lie could not hold up to cross examination by the high priest
  2. Farce of a trial had to stand some scrutiny for Pilate to execute Jesus
  3. Had to have some evidence and some reasonable facsimile of fairness
  4. Nothing Jesus had said or taught could be used against Him
  5. Everything Jesus said was true and right
  6. Everything the prosecutors brought before the priests failed to meet the standards for any punishment, much less death
6. Jesus always shared truth
  1. Many didn’t like what He said, but He gave them the truth
  2. Today, many do not like what Christians say, but we must share the truth
  3. Only the truth can free us from the guilt of sin
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

No secret societies (John 18:20-21), April 21, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Secrets are something Jesus reached inside others and made known. He didn’t seem to have any Himself. Maybe we should follow suit.
Scripture
1. John 18:20-21
2. Jesus: I have spoken in public where the world can hear, always teaching in the synagogue and in the temple where the Jewish people gather. I have never spoken in secret. So why would you need to interrogate Me? Many have heard Me teach. Why don’t you question them? They know what I have taught.
Devotional
1. I’ve taken several oaths in my life.
  1. As an Army officer to support and defend the Constitution
  2. To my wife
  3. In court, to tell the truth
  4. In various legal situations attesting to my identity or the truth of some legal document
  5. All those oaths are public record or can be
2. I’ve never belonged to one of those secret societies. And I don’t want to.
  1. Oaths behind closed doors.
  2. Teachings that you must reach certain levels before you are allowed to hear what the next level knows
  3. Secrets about beliefs and activities
  4. Secrets about loyalties and how deep those loyalties extend
3. That’s what I like about Jesus’ testimony to the high priest
  1. Wasn’t trying to be flippant
  2. Wasn’t trying to be rude or arrogant
  3. Just stating fact
  4. Everything He did was in the open for all to see
  5. Even His prayers were open enough for His disciples to overhear and record them for us later in the gospels
4. Beware of those religions that hide behind secrets
  1. Jesus had no secrets
  2. Everything He did, He did in the open for all to hear
  3. I think He tells us to do the same
  4. We have nothing to hide when we follow His command and His example
  5. It’s true many have died because of His teaching, but so did He
5. What did He teach that cost His life?
  1. God wants a personal relationship with each of us
  2. Only one relationship never ends, think about it
  3. Everyone you enter into a relationship with will die or move or things change that change the relationship
  4. Every relationship with anything or anyone terrestrial will end
  5. Only a relationship with God can last
  6. Only He is immortal and relates with our immortal soul
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

The perfect High Priest (Hebrews 8) December 12, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Hebrews 8

Set – Hebrews 7-8

Go! – Hebrews 5-8

Hebrews 8
¹ So let me sum up what we’ve covered so far, for there is much we have said: we have a High Priest, a perfect Priest who sits in the place of honor in the highest heavens, at the right hand of the throne of the Majestic One, ² a Minister within the heavenly sanctuary set up by the Lord, not by human hands.
³ As I have said, it is the role of every high priest to offer gifts and sacrifices to God, so clearly this Priest of ours must have something to offer as well. ⁴ If He were on earth, then He would not be a priest at all because there are already priests who can offer gifts according to the law of Moses ⁵ in a sanctuary that is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary. We know this because God admonished Moses as he set up the tent for the Lord’s sanctuary: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I showed you on the mountain.” ⁶ But now Jesus has taken on a new and improved priestly ministry; and in that respect, He has been made the Mediator of a better covenant established on better promises. ⁷ Remember, if the first covenant had been able to reconcile everyone to God, there would be no reason for a second covenant. ⁸ God found fault with the priests when He said through the prophet Jeremiah,
“Look! The time is coming,” the Eternal Lord says,
“when I will bring about a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
⁹ It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of slavery in the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to that covenant,
so,” the Eternal One says, “I turned away from them.
¹⁰ But when those days are over,” the Eternal One says, “I will make
this kind of covenant with the people of Israel:
I will put My laws on their minds
and write them upon their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be My people.
¹¹ In those days, they won’t need to teach each other My ways
or to say to each other, ‘Know the Eternal.’
In those days, all will know Me,
from the least to the greatest.
¹² I will be merciful when they fail,
and I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of My memory
as though they had never existed.”
¹³ With the words “a new covenant,” God made the first covenant old, and what is old and no longer effective will soon fade away completely.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Have you ever thought why Jesus, the Son of God, is the perfect High Priest? Every religion since the beginning have had priests to act as intermediaries to the gods. People always thought their gods were too high and powerful to be approached by mere mortals. And so, communities, religions established priesthoods to act as their intermediaries. Individuals set apart by their special insight or intellect or behavior to act as one who would approach their god on their behalf.

I even did it for the Israelites as I established their worship of Me. I gave Moses the order of priests through Aaron and the tribe of Levi because of their unwillingness to face Me. The Israelites fear of Me caused Me to allow individuals to act as intermediaries on your behalf for a time because you were afraid to approach Me. And like all other religions, you wanted a special place to worship Me, so you build a Temple because you thought I needed a house to dwell in.

But think about Jesus, all God and all Man. Human priests fall short in their ability to approach Me because they still fall so short in their insight, intellect, or behavior compared to a holy God. But My Son, Me in the flesh, part of the triune Godhead. Perfect in insight, wisdom, and sinless. He needed no intermediary. Jesus could approach Me on your behalf because He was and is God Himself. Not just good, but God. Jesus could approach frail humans with all their faults because He was and is human.

Jesus. Son of God. Son of Man. The perfect High Priest. Eternal. Sinless. Approaches Me without hesitation because He is God. Approaches all humanity without hesitation because He is Man. He knows Me intimately. He knows you intimately. How could there be a better High Priest than Jesus? How could there be a better intercessor for you than Jesus? How could there be a better gift from heaven than the God-Man, Jesus?

So who do you want as your High Priest? Some human with his faults? Or Jesus, the perfect High Priest? Think about it, but it’s not a hard decision.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

The role God plays (Hebrews 9:11-28), July 12, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Hebrews 9:11-28

Set – Isaiah 11; Hebrews 9

Go! – Isaiah 11-14; Hebrews 9

Hebrews 9:11-28
¹¹ When the Anointed One arrived as High Priest of the good things that are to come, He entered through a greater and more perfect sanctuary that was not part of the earthly creation or made by human hands. ¹² He entered once for all time into the most holy place—entering, not with the blood of goats or calves or some other prescribed animal, but offering His own blood and thus obtaining redemption for us for all time. ¹³ Think about it: if the blood of bulls or of goats, or the sprinkling of ashes from a heifer, restores the defiled to bodily cleanliness and wholeness; ¹⁴ then how much more powerful is the blood of the Anointed One, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as a spotless sacrifice to God, purifying your conscience from the dead things of the world to the service of the living God?
¹⁵ This is why Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant: through His death, He delivered us from the sins that we had built up under the first covenant, and His death has made it possible for all who are called to receive God’s promised inheritance. ¹⁶ For whenever there is a testament—a will—the death of the one who made it must be confirmed ¹⁷ because a will takes effect only at the death of its maker; it has no validity as long as the maker is still alive. ¹⁸ Even the first testament—the first covenant—required blood to be put into action. ¹⁹ When Moses had given all the laws of God to the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, water, hyssop, and scarlet wool; and he sprinkled the scroll and all the people, ²⁰ telling them, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for us.”²¹ In the same way, he also sprinkled blood upon the sanctuary and upon the vessels used in worship. ²² Under the law, it’s almost the case that everything is purified in connection with blood; without the shedding of blood, sin cannot be forgiven.
²³ Since what was given in the old covenant was the earthly sketch of the heavenly reality, this was sufficient to cleanse the earthly sanctuary; but in heaven, a more perfect sacrifice was needed. ²⁴ The Anointed One did not enter into handcrafted sacred spaces—imperfect copies of heavenly originals—but into heaven itself, where He stands in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ There He does not offer Himself over and over as a sacrifice (as the high priest on earth does when he enters the most holy place each year with blood other than his own) ²⁶ because that would require His repeated suffering since the beginning of the world. No, He has appeared once now, at the end of the age, to put away sin forever by offering Himself as a sacrifice.
²⁷ Just as mortals are appointed to die once and then to experience a judgment, ²⁸ so the Anointed One, our Liberating King, was offered once in death to bear the sins of many and will appear a second time, not to deal again with sin, but to rescue those who eagerly await His return.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

I gave Moses a poor copy of the sacred spaces of My sanctuary. The tabernacle and all its implements held a special place in the lives of the Israelites as they wandered in the desert and in the young nation as it established itself in the promised land. The Temple Solomon built with all its grandeur still stood as a poor example of My throne room in heaven. But the plans and the space set aside for My worship did help people understand My holiness. The separate place for devotion to Me was cleaner than the rest of the city. Its water purer, the implements stronger and better made. The altar glittered from the bronze cleaned every morning and the gold within the enclosure reflected the brilliant rays of the sun wherever you gazed.

Even with all the bronze, silver, and gold in the tabernacle and Temple, the spaces were but poor examples of the glory of heaven. Nothing on earth compares to the beauty that surrounds Me continuously. A very few have glimpsed corners of heaven and are always unable to describe it. The colors, the sounds, the smells, the feelings, the beauty is absolutely beyond anything you can imagine.

That’s what I gave up to become your sacrifice. Nothing could atone for you like My blood. So I gave it freely so you could live. The imitation of the glories of heaven wouldn’t work. The imitation of pure and perfect sacrifices would work. The imitation of atonement wouldn’t work. So I gave myself. I came as the perfect sacrifice for your sins. I came as your high priest and gave myself. That’s the love I have for you. Only one Man could serve as the perfect high priest, Me, God wrapped in human flesh. Only one Man could be your perfect sacrifice, Me, God wrapped in human flesh. Only one God loves enough to become the One Man who would do it all for you. Me.

Think about the role I play in your salvation. What I gave up for you so you can be freed from the chains of sin. Then ask yourself if you have given yourself to Me as fully. If not, today can be the day you give yourself wholly to Me. I’ll take you just like you are.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

God is your high priest (Hebrews 7:15-28), July 10, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Hebrews 7:15-28

Set – Micah 7; Hebrews 7

Go! – Micah 5-7; Hebrews 7

Hebrews 7:15-28
¹⁵ Doesn’t it seem obvious? Jesus is a priest who resembles Melchizedek in so many ways; ¹⁶ He is someone who has become a priest, not because of some requirement about human lineage, but because of the power of a life without end. ¹⁷ Remember, the psalmist says,
You are a priest forever—
in the honored order of Melchizedek.
¹⁸ Because the earlier commandment was weak and did not reconcile us to God effectively, it was set aside— ¹⁹ after all, the law could not make anyone or anything perfect. God has now introduced a new and better hope, through which we may draw near to Him, ²⁰ and confirmed it by swearing to it. ²¹ The Levite order of priests took office without an oath, but this man Jesus became a priest through God’s oath:
The Eternal One has sworn an oath
and cannot change His mind:
You are a priest forever.
²² So we can see that Jesus has become the guarantee of a new and better covenant. ²³ Further, the prior priesthood of the sons of Levi has included many priests because death cut short their service, ²⁴ but Jesus holds His priesthood permanently because He lives His resurrected life forever. ²⁵ From such a vantage, He is able to save those who approach God through Him for all time because He will forever live to be their advocate in the presence of God.
²⁶ It is only fitting that we should have a High Priest who is devoted to God, blameless, pure, compassionate toward but separate from sinners, and exalted by God to the highest place of honor. ²⁷ Unlike other high priests, He does not first need to make atonement every day for His own sins, and only then for His people’s, because He already made atonement, reconciling us with God once and forever when He offered Himself as a sacrifice. ²⁸ The law made imperfect men high priests; but after that law was given, God swore an oath that made His perfected Son a high priest for all time.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

I tried to use men to guide you to a better life after the fall. Adam repented in the garden when I came to him and asked what he and Eve had done. He tried to teach his sons right from wrong. Abel got it. Cain didn’t. The world got worse as I tried to get people to teach each other My lessons about good and evil. Finally, I destroyed all of humankind except Noah and his family in a flood.

Noah followed Me and listened to Me. I tried to use him as the springboard for teaching his offspring about good and evil. But he failed to pass on what I taught him to his daughters and one of the first things that happened after the flood, he got drunk on the wine he made and his daughters slept with him.

I raised up Abraham and his children as My chosen people to teach the rest of the world about good and evil and how I wanted them to follow Me and live righteous lives. Abraham failed in some of the tests I set out for him, but in others he was a blessing to the nations around him. His offspring, the Israelites were to teach the world about Me. Instead they followed foreign gods and abandoned Me.

Time and again, I entrusted people to share My word, My commands, My directions and hope for you, but so many times, the lure of the world and its pagan practices that satisfy temporal pleasures pulled you away from Me. I wanted to let you discover for yourself that I am your eternal salvation and your redeemer, but you looked at the shiny baubles that Satan put before you and let him entice you for momentary gain.

I put the priesthood in place to set aside a specific tribe to try to help them understand the importance of remaining separate and holy. I hoped they would understand the importance of purity in their lives by living and working within the tabernacle and Temple. They didn’t. The tabernacle and the Temple became just as corrupt as the rest of the nation with its bribes, merchants profiting from selling sacrifices, dishonest scales, and the injustice within the gates.

So I came to earth as man. I came as one of you to become the perfect priest. I came as one unmarred by sin and evil. I came as the only one who could show you how to live free from evil and unwilling to bow to the temptations that came from every direction. Did I feel the pull of Satan? Yes. As a fully human being, I was subject to temptation just as you. But I never succumbed to them. I was sinless and so I can stand as your high priest.

I know what you go through because I was one of you but I can also redeem you because I was and am perfect, interceding for you as your high priest. Come to Me and I will do it. Repent, turn from your sin, follow Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.