Missions Paul

Ever said those words? I have.

I’ve seen manipulation, lies and deception and I’ve said how is this possible? It is because of the waiting period which we are in right now. Read these next verses:

“But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10 v 12-14)

This sitting down at the right hand is imagery of supreme authority, finished work, Christ does not have to do anything more, it is a once for all sacrifice.

And yet there are still enemies, though we are not given any more detail who these people or beings are, we just know they are there. And in the waiting time these enemies are there but they will eventually submit to Christ, they will surrender, every knee shall bow.

An example of one of those enemies could be simply our struggle in this sinful world. In v10 we read that we have been made holy. Here in v14 ‘he has made perfect forever’ so Christ has completed the work in us, we are holy before God. And yet in this waiting time here on earth, ‘we are being made holy’, this is so helpfully pastoral, an understanding that as we look in the mirror this morning and as we wake with so many thoughts (and not all are holy ones), we realise we are still in the struggle, we are being made holy, it is not over yet, this is our waiting time. How could that happen? We are a finished work in progress.

In what reveals some thought about the dating of this letter being when the Temple was still in operation (pre AD 70) the author reminds the community that, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” (Hebrews 10 v 11)

Day after day, again and again, the same performance and yet it never satisfies completely.

Look around today and though you won’t see the Temple sacrifices you will see the hamster wheels of life, scurrying to be and to achieve, to please and perform to perhaps a god they do not know or friends who are following them on socials.

Yesterday I had a beautiful moment of leading someone to Christ and I was able to say to that person that there is nothing they could do to make themselves a better person. They had come from a false religious background which knew much of duty. I told them of Jesus who gave the once and all sacrifice and who now by His Spirit will come and live within and alongside their life and as they simply let Him by submission then He will do the work of keeping them as a new creation in Christ. That is our gospel.

So let’s look at that verse again but differently:-

Day after day we stand ourselves, we don’t need a priest to do it for us and we worship our God. Again and again we dwell with complete assurance of the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ that our sins are washed away. We are clean before God. We are free.

We all are in a battle for the will, our will. We want what we want. We are followers of Jesus but we come with an agenda. That agenda is us. Within all of this battle is the temptation to say No to the Father and Yes to us. The only way through is prayer. That is where we lay down what we want and our ideas and say we are not going to do it my way but YOUR way.

“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. That act was accomplished first by prayer. Do you remember that prayer?

Jesus knelt down and prayed. We think of this with Western eyes. But Jesus kneeling to pray was shocking. He only knelt once and this is it. The battle for his will has begun and he demonstrates by choosing a posture of surrender.

His prayed. We can never understand the full weight of the burden he was carrying knowing that the next day he would not only endure an excruciating death but he would take the weight of the sin of the world. On top of this he brought to the surface what he wanted, his will in this ordeal, then he surrendered it, he said that’s not what is going to happen, there is no greater prayer than that! Above all in this painful prayer time he knew he would be separated from his Father which had never happened before.

This prayer of Jesus is not only beautiful and powerful it leads us to pray the same.

Here I am, I have come to do your will.

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.

God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12 v 1-2)

God’s will, will prosper: “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makeshis life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:10)

God’s will can be understood: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5 v 17)

God’s will is to be desired: “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:8)

“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)

A letter from God

I AM is here right now. I am here. With you. I will be all that I will be. All that is needed for your life I AM.

I left everything to come. I lowered myself down into human form. I incarnated myself into flesh. The same as you. I know all there is to know about being you. I came for a reason. It was to end the performance religion. It never worked it only cried out for a better way. I came to abolish it completely. My prayer changed everything. ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will’ has made it possible for you to pray the same. I AM said HERE I AM.

So stop striving to please. My sacrifice made everything right for you. I was obedient to the Father and in doing so I have made you holy. It is not something that you have to keep achieving. It is a done deal. You are holy. You are right before God. There is nothing you can do about that. I won’t have to do this again. It is done. I did it once for you and that is it. The moment I cleansed you and came into your life by my Spirit that was it. The moment you surrendered your life to me that was it. It was declared in heaven and earth. Holy. Set apart for me. Mine. I did it once and I won’t do it again. It is once for all.

I have heard the many ‘Here I am’ prayers from you. None are wasted. Some are desperate prayers and some are based on failure. Lift up your eyes. Lift up your hands. Look to the power of the cross. Gaze on the empty tomb. See the ascended exalted Christ. Failure, sin, death has no power over your life. So let the HERE I AM prayers be glorious loud and filled with hope.

You are worried and troubled about many things; trust me with all your heart. I know how to rescue godly people from their trials. My Spirit helps you in your distress. Let me strengthen you with my glorious power. March on, dear soul, with courage! Never give up. I will help you. I will uphold you.

Trust in me always. I am the eternal Rock, your Shepherd, the Guardian of your soul. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.

I will make you fruitful in the land of suffering, trading beauty for ashes, joy for mourning and praise for despair. I live with the low spirited and spirit crushed. I put a new spirit in you and get you on your feet again. Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning. If I am for you, who can ever be against you?

You sometimes say, “The Lord has deserted me; the Lord has forgotten me.” But can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? Even if that were possible I would not forget you! I paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, my sinless, spotless Lamb. No one will snatch you away from me. See, I have written your name on my hand. I call you my friend. Why, the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are valuable to me.

Give me your burdens; I will take care of you. I know how weak you are, that you are made of dust. Give all your worries and cares to me, because I care about what happens to you.

Remember, I am at hand. Come to me when you are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. I delight in you, and I can be trusted to keep my promises.

HERE I AM

“May the will of the Lord be done”

Amen

I AM

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.