Author: missionspaul

There are days when the words of this title are not declared confidently as an act of worship. But if we set them into the right situation then they can come alive and be of great benefit to us.

The author repeats the quotation from Psalm 40 which prophetically reveals what Christ came to do. He pauses for greater impact. Do you really understand this? Can you see it? And so must we. Let’s not rush by. I will wait on these verses the next couple of days I think.

Read these words again.

“First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. ⁹ Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10 v 8-10)

The multiple sacrifices were set aside for the one. The setting aside was the destruction of the old system for this one act of obedience to the will of God.

“Here I am, I have come to do your will”

Do you know those words, HERE I AM?

Not only spoken with hands raised in a beautiful precious moment of worship. But spoken at times when we are just turning up because it is simply a tough season for us.

HERE I AM I didn’t think I would come but I’m here.

HERE I AM in my disappointment and confusion.

HERE I AM in my hurt and anger.

And in those moments HE is gracious and HE is kind and HE takes us as we are and works within us HIS presence and we move on again.

What I’m trying to say is the words HERE I AM are not always victorious words. But we must learn to allow them to be enveloped by the great I AM. The great I AM stooped low and spoke the words HERE I AM for us.

Can you bring your HERE I AM position today and let the great I AM surround you, uphold you, strengthen you?

“Before Abraham was born, I AM” (John 8:58) reveals that Jesus was fully aware that He existed before His life on earth.

His pre-existence reveals that He has seen it all. He knows all there is to know.

He is the Ancient of Days, the Creator of all things. We cannot contain Him to a place and a time. He is beyond our grasp and our understanding. He had no beginning. He was before the beginning.

There has been nothing in your life that He has not seen. He has and will always know what is going on in your life even when you do not. He wants you to trust in His pre-existence. He wants you to place your HERE I AM into his I AM. I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.

Believe today that the great I AM can do absolutely anything with absolutely nothing.

Jesus is able. He is pre-existent and 2,000 years on from His incarnation He is here right now in this your place. The I AM stands before you. The same God who said I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. The same God who led Israel out of Egypt and sustained them in the desert is here. The same God who entered humanity is here. The same God who abolished the sacrificial system is here. The same God who incarnated into flesh and then submitted to his Father’s will and said the words HERE I AM is right here with you but the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now let your hands raise, let your heart stir, lift up your eyes and declare your words HERE I AM!

In a beautiful shift to Psalm 40 the author takes the prophetic message from David as the words Jesus said to His Father at His incarnation.

“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; ⁶ with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’” (Hebrews 10 v 5-7)

These verses show that the author had the pre-existent Christ in his mind. He came from and eternal state and he came to replace the sacrificial system. These laws within the system was not pleasing God, it couldn’t.

God still doesn’t want our performance, our religious duty, but He still is looking for what He found in His Son: the sacrificial heart, the surrendered life, a commitment to be obedient to His will. The words ‘Here I am’ should be spoken to Him in prayer throughout our lives.

As you begin a new day in whatever circumstance of your life there is an opportunity to imitate Him.

From the temptations of the desert to the teaching of disciples; to working out the will of your Father to following its cause; we have an opportunity to look like Him.

Children copy their parents.

Leave your comfort today, surrender, let go, give your life for others, step down from lofty places no matter how justified you feel. Feel the pain. Choose nails. Copy Him. There will come a day, a resurrection day when you will be able to lift up your nail printed hands and say I paid the price, I lived the life; I copied God. I didn’t perform for Him but I surrendered to Him.

The Law of Moses (the need to do good things to outweigh the bad, the need to perform, to strive, to tick the boxes so that God is pleased with us) is a shadow of what is here (9:11) and what is to come:-

“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ² Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³ But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. ⁴ It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10 v 1-4)

The Day of Atonement cannot make us ‘perfect’, nothing of Judaism nor of Islam, Hinduism and all the other religions of the world can deal with the longing of our souls. There is some good in all of the religions and yet none have the answer to the way of salvation. Our most basic need of cleansing, forgiveness, freedom from guilt, fear and loneliness cannot be found in any of the ‘laws’ and not even Church. Nothing can take away sins.

Only Jesus. If you don’t have Jesus then you only have shadows. Only Jesus accomplishes the one great event of all history that takes away sin from a person. It is the distinctive. Everything else is a performance that is only a shadow of the true act. Only Jesus is the one worth praying to. Only Jesus is the one worth worshipping. Everything else is impossible.

Let’s imagine what it was like for the Israelites waiting for their High Priest to come back from the Holy of Holies. He had gone through the curtain on the Day of Atonement. Once a year and every year they wait with eager expectation. Of course he might not make it. He could die in there. So they wait. Then he appears and the celebrations can begin. Their sins have been covered. They are right before God, well for another year anyway. And it all spoke of something greater!

“…so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9 v 28)

Christ will return! He is coming again! He will appear a second time! And just like those who have died as followers of Him and ultimately face salvation as they go through the purifying fire of their deeds (see yesterday’s blog) so when Jesus comes again He will come to finalise salvation for us all.

We have been saved, we are being saved and we will be saved when He comes again (or we die first). This fulfilment of salvation is for those who are waiting for him. This is an assumption that we will be waiting. It is to wait with eager expectation. We know He is coming and we are at the place of watching the curtain to move a little to show the High Priest is on his way out to us. We know our sin has been dealt with and this is just going to be a time of the celebration of being saved.

This is how we live. This is how we survive the storms of life. When we are sick, when we endure insecurities and the many problems this life can bring to us, we are waiting, our Saviour is coming. He will save us. No more tears, no more pain, no more wars, no more division, manipulation, lies and deceit, all gone. We will be finally set free from such evils. This is how we live. With full anticipation of the return of our Saviour. This is how we live, isn’t it?

Recently a Pastor-friend who lives thousands of miles away from me created a strategic plan so that if one of their senior members of the team suddenly died everyone would know what to do. Within 3 weeks that strategic plan was put into effect as sadly that is exactly what happened.

Can you imagine what it would be like if the strategic plans that we are surrounded by and the many vision statements that we marvel in contain the truth that Jesus is on His way?

To live so that when He comes we will not be embarrassed.

To live so that our witness becomes more focused and more pressing.

To live so that our assets and finances are reflective in His coming, we know about kingdom investments.

Perhaps anticipation needs to return to our lives and to our churches? To live with hope, a longing and an expectancy that the curtain is moving and Jesus is very soon stepping back into this world of His.

This life is our one opportunity. We don’t get to do it again here. I remember as a Pastor burying a member who thought God would heal him because he had something for him to do. The problem was that he had felt this all his life and he never got on with it and did something for God, for others and for himself. He sadly had wasted so much of his life. In contrast recently I was looking at a CV of a friend and I realised that they have such a zest for life that it literally was a celebration of life so far and there was more to come!

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9 v 27-28)

God has ordained that we die. The sting of death is removed for those who are followers of Christ but death is still there. We don’t get another chance. It is death and then judgment. That’s something not to fear because for those who die in Christ their judgment has already happened at the cross. Humanity either faces the judgment at the cross or the judgment at the Throne (Revelation 20).

We will face Judgment and Christ will be our judge as His followers. At the judgment seat of Christ everything in our life that was not of Him or for Him meaning not just our deeds but the motives that may have made the deeds look good, will be burned up. We will go through the purifying fire and everything that was not of Him will be finally burned up.

This is so wonderful! For no follower of Christ no matter what is said at their funeral stands before Christ perfect. We all die sinners. We die with addictions, with debts, with things done for the world to see and things that only He has seen. Praise the Lord that we will not be judged for those things for if we were we would never make it. But because we have been to the cross and the judgment for our sin has been laid on Him then when we stand before Him He will burn up everything that has attached to our life that was not of Him. And then we will be rewarded for the things that remain, the things that were definitely of Him. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

So we come back to this life. We must make sure that we are living our lives in such a way that when we are at the judgment seat of Christ that our motives and actions in this life are not burned up but are rewarded. How we treat others and even the motives for doing so becomes important. In this life you may get to the top of your career but at the expense of who? How many have you trod on? Recently I heard of a minister who sadly fell away and their family are ruined as this man walks away from everything they have stood for. Yes they will be judged but so will the person who in the previous chapter of their life judged them heavily and rejected them in such a way that they became easy pickings for the enemy. In contrast think of the many acts of love that you hear are done in secret but rewarded later. Kindness is all around us because the followers of Christ are making sure their CV’s contain acts of righteousness, helping others, walking in humility, with grace, giving to God and to others, laying their life down, carrying burdens, mercy missions either to their neighbour or to another people group thousands of miles away. They realise this is their moment, their chance to live for a cause, to build a CV that glorifies God, to be the hands, feet, voice of Jesus in places of despair. To see transformation. They know … this is not a dress rehearsal.

Can you imagine waking up today having had a restless night with condemning thoughts and then going through the day having doubts about your abilities and who you are?

Of course you can.

Some reading this today will have woken in the night thinking of that accusation they are facing. Some are in the middle of it right now, they face uncertain futures, fingers are being pointed and stones are being thrown for the accuser is at work. Others don’t need enemies to do this for their greatest enemy is in their own mind.

Can you imagine in all of that trying to be the best you can be for others, yourself and for God?

I’ve got some news!

“For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9 v 24-26)

Christ is in heaven appearing for you in God’s presence. He is doing that now.

When God looks at you, when He investigates you, what does he find? It is not what your accuser wants you to know.

What people find is immaterial. What your enemies find matters not. Even what you may find in your self-condemnatory life does not count. It is what HE finds that counts.

No you don’t need another cross. No you don’t need another sacrifice.

If we lived our life on what He sees and what He finds knowing that Christ is always appearing before God for us and not what we know and what the accuser says then maybe we will live better and perhaps the many decisions of life will be easier.

The author is almost repeating the themes he has already written but if he does then it is needed. The believers are thinking of walking away from being followers of Jesus to going back to Judaism with its religious practices. And you might say this doesn’t apply to you. However the temptation we always have is to begin to try and do good works as a means to feel we are right before God. If I’m praying, reading the Bible, going to church, doing acts of kindness then that shows I am good. But of course that is also how we feel when the opposite happens. When I sin again, when I am not nice and am unkind, selfish then that shows I am a bad person and God most probably doesn’t like me and will judge me.

It is of course faulty thinking. It isn’t the truth.

“It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” (Hebrews 9 v23)

Don’t let anyone lead you to believe that heaven in some way needed purifying. There is no physical tabernacle with all of its furniture in heaven. It is us who needed purifying and it called not for earthly sacrifices but something far better. This of course was His once-for-all-sacrifice. We are the heavenly things, we are the people who God lives within and the only way He could enter within was His own sacrifice and nothing of our good works.

So why go back to good works as a means to gain favour with God when the ultimate work has already happened for your life. You have been purified through Christ’s blood. Why not simply accept that truth. There is nothing that you can do to make what He has done better. This is a better way to live.

The blood was needed for the old covenant. The blood of animals was used on that day that sealed that covenant and the outworking of it before the altars over the generations to come. Everything in the tabernacle, all of the furniture and the tabernacle itself was sprinkled with the blood of the animals. Everything that needed cleansing needed the blood of animals. The blood brought the forgiveness. The author/pastor helps us to see this:

“This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. ¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” ²¹ In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. ²² In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9 v 18-22)

To move from the old to the new covenant it wasn’t the blood of anything else except that of Jesus which made it possible.

To move into the new season of being cleansed and being forgiven again it wasn’t the blood of anything else except that of Jesus which made it possible.

Here’s the thing. The sooner the Church realises that only the blood of Jesus should be found on its floor the better. Divisions can happen in seasons of transition and there can be the blood of people that is spilled figuratively.

The transition between the old and new helps us to see the model for our mission today.

Let the world only see the blood of Jesus in the Church.

Recently I have been seriously looking at how old I am. There’s just nothing I can do to stop these years from being added on. How did I get to this age?

Inevitably one day I will be entering into the day of my death. It is there for us all. Death is part of life. We cannot avoid it though we try through all kinds of ways to give ourselves just a bit longer.

It should not be feared but it should lead us to appreciate the time we have.

In many areas of life death is necessary and that is certainly what our author is saying to us in the next 2 verses about Jesus.

^“In the case of a will,it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, ¹⁷ because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.” (Hebrews 9 v 16-17)

How is an inheritance/ a will gained? A death.

What brings about the end of what was old? A death.

What brings us into the new? A death.

What takes us from the old ideas into the new ideas? A death.

What moves us into a new season? A death.

The Christian gospel is that of the power of the death of Christ on the cross. We must never forget that this is the model for our life here and especially if we are in a leadership capacity. The New Testament is full of this message. Death to self. Dying to our sinful nature. Laying our life down for others.

It seems to me we do a lot of proclaiming about how alive we are when God is desiring we die first! We are so good at promoting where we are going that we take our eyes off the cost, the price that will need to be paid, who is going to die to self? Within the church it is always the shepherd that needs to lay their life down for the sheep. But let’s not just leave it to the shepherds, we are all shepherds in some way. Vision is never realised without a death.

D:Ream, a Northern Irish pop group had a number one song in 1994 with the title ‘Things can only get better’. I am sure if you know the song you have started to hum the tune right now!

I love these kind of opportune songs. The start of political conferences or presidential runs there are usually these kind of upbeat visionary songs that indeed things can only get better. The above was because ‘I’ve found you’ though they are usually played to firmly suggest ‘you’ve found me’!

Every Pastor and Church are familiar with vision statements, looking ahead to see what is before us, a time to imagine the impossibility becoming possible.

But crucial to anything you hear from any leader, politician or from the pulpit is the second of my 2 titles: What and How?

A vision and great ideas are fairly easy to come by. But the method, the strategy, how we get there is a different thing altogether!

The old covenant was calling over many generations for something new. It heralded through the prophets for a new covenant to come.

The author in one verse lays not only the purpose but also the method. This is what the vision is but then this is how it will be fulfilled. Remember Hebrews 9 v 15. Let it become the backdrop of your life and the guide. Let it be your foundation not only for what it says because that in itself is so powerful but the model that our Lord Jesus Christ lived by and calls us all to do also. Here it is.

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9 v 15)

The NIV separates the verse with a dash. It helps us.

We all long for the promises, even the ones all the way back to Abraham’s day. The promises that we will discover in the chapter of faith (11). We are people who are ready to ‘receive the promised eternal inheritance’. This is the what?

But the how? This is critical to the what.

The promises have come to us because of the sacrifice of Christ. He paid the price.

He set us free from the sins of the first covenant and not only that one. It just wasn’t working. So what was needed was not a whole new set of rules to replace the defunct ones. No. It was the cross, sacrifice, He laid His life down, He gave up; He submitted, He made Himself less, He humbled Himself.

That’s the Shepherd way. That is our leader showing us how to do life.

If there is no sacrifice be very careful what is being sold to you.