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Christmas at Grace

#2 “Jesus the Great High Priest” – Dr. Matt Cassidy

Leviticus 16; Hebrews 6-10

12/15/2013 We have been looking at Advent together, with the Advent wreath and candles. The idea of Advent for

the Christmas Season is anticipation, looking forward, hoping for something, hoping for God to do

something that He can do that we cannot do. We find ourselves in a state of desperation.

If we really listen to our hearts, we find ourselves longing. We long for a Mediator. Jesus is the Mediator.

A mediator described in common terms would be like an umpire, the ultimate umpire – the person

who stands between God and man. Last week, we saw that part of the job description of a mediator is to

come as a Prophet to speak for God to man so that we might know the things that are right, real, and true,

that we might know heaven’s perspective, that we might understand eternal things. He comes as a

spokesperson. He is calling to us from God and that is how He mediates from God to man. We long for

that type of mediation.

But what about this most descriptive term about the nature of God and how we could possibly

know Him or see Him? This attribute of His that stands out above the others, because the Bible says that.

is that God is holy, He is holy, and He is holy. There is no other time in the Bible where an adjective is

used to describe God, using it three times – and He says it again and again and again. The holiness of God

has to be dealt with from someone outside because holiness means perfection, absolute without any

failing or lacking of anything. Holiness is used sometimes in the Bible to mean complete. Sometimes it

means holy other, separated because it is not like anything else. If God is that way, and He is, that He is

perfect, complete and distinguishes Himself as holy other, we have to have someone who stands between

us because His perfection devours anything short of perfection. It is the nature of things. Nothing short of

perfection can endure His presence. It is enveloped, it is extinguished, it is inflamed, it is destroyed

because that is what holiness does.

A Priest, the other office of a mediator, the thing we long for during advent, comes in and says:

Wait, God, don’t let your holiness destroy these people yet. I can hold you off.

Jesus is the Mediator


[Several actual photos of 1940’s detonations of nuclear bombs into mushroom-shaped clouds at sea and

on land; and actual film footage of our soldiers on our soil ‘protecting’ themselves in foxholes and then

popping up and walking toward the blast site.]

If you look at holiness in the Bible, it is not difficult to think almost immediately of the way that

our nation had the experience of playing with nuclear weapons. In the early days of nuclear weapons,

1940s, we were detonating these megaton bombs, whether atomic or hydrogen, and here is a picture of

one. This is the biggest naval fleet that we have – these little boats are cruisers and aircraft carriers and

they are dwarfed in comparison to the size of the mushroom cloud.

The hydrogen bomb was dropped and now we have a mushroom shaped cloud on top of a

mushroom shaped cloud.

But what is especially entertaining to me is in the early days when we were igniting these in the

deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, we would put men in little ditches, little foxholes, and put little

helmets on top of their heads and say: Not to worry. It is probably only a 20-kiloton weapon. You will

hear an explosion and when you do, you can look up and see that explosion. You will be hit by a breeze.

Not to worry. That is radioactivity that will re-arrange your entire genetic pattern. – Look at this early

footage. The breeze blows by them – no, sorry, through them, and then they run towards the radioactivity

because we did not know what we were doing. We had no concept of the power of radiation. These men,

because of ignorance, paid the price.

You can see that sort of thing happening with the holiness of God in the Bible. Look at the book of

Leviticus 10:1-7. This is why some people don’t read the Old Testament because they are cavalier with

the radioactivity of God’s holiness.

The first family, Moses and his big brother Aaron were at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of

knowing God. Aaron was the high priest, the oldest brother in the family and so he was the high priest; he

delegated to his two oldest sons to take over their right, being in that lineage as priests. They became

careless with the holiness of God. The two sons were vaporized – killed immediately – graveyard dead.

That is rather startling in the passage when you read it but what is especially astonishing is that

when Moses is told to tell his older brother Aaron about the death of his two sons, he says this: Don’t you

even grieve, not one hair is to be misplaced on your head. We will not have a memorial service for them.

We won’t bury them. We are picking up camp and moving on. We don’t need that kind of foolishness in

Ignorant Endangerment/Carelessness: Bombs … Holy God


our camp. God is holy and anyone who heard any story of what happened to Aaron’s sons were afraid.

[Leviticus 10:6, 7]

That is what it is like to have an acquaintanceship with God. So you can see why we would long

for a Priest who would stand between God and man, and hold Him off, to somehow protect us from the

holiness of God. When we long for a Mediator, we long for a Priest.

If you want to look in the Bible to learn about the holiness of God, what book do you think you

would go to? The book is in the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) and the book is Leviticus.

Leviticus is not a book that many people read and fewer people read it twice. The reason is that book is

about the holiness of God. It is about how to have an encounter that you can survive with this God who is

set apart.

So holiness or some derivative of the word holiness is used 119 times, almost 120 times some

expression of God’s otherness and His …. There are no words. So they use words like holy and holiness.

Then 100 times words are used to describe how we should be separate or sanctified or set apart for Him –

so not to do things like other people do for false gods. Even in that separateness, some of those things,

when you read then, they are just common hygiene issues, simple things you and I do as mammals. By

participating in these events we do daily, God says: You are not qualified. You are too animal like. You

are just a mammal today. So you are not qualified to do some of the rituals that are explained in the book

of Leviticus.

If you look at the book of Leviticus, again, early on, it says: This is what God is like and how you might

be able to have an audience with Him. The zenith, in my opinion, of that book is Leviticus 16 where it

talks about the Day of Atonement. The whole chapter is dedicated to a one-day event where all things are

made right for a year. If there the saying: A picture is worth a thousand words; there is a word which is

worth a thousand pictures – and it is the word atonement.

Just to help you understand what the word means – it doesn’t literally mean this – you can break

the word up --- Atonement – At One Ment: To pay for. This is what it takes to get at one with God.

The word literally means – to pay for. You have bills to pay and on this day, the Day of

Atonement, the bills don’t get paid but just the interest. It buys you another year but your principal has

never been dented yet. It means to pay for a debt that you owe.

Book of Leviticus – holiness of God

Day of Atonement – ‘to pay for’


The Day of Atonement is a rather elaborate experience, which I will go through in a minute, but it

is an annual event because it does not pay the principal. So the last verse in Leviticus 16:30 reads:

… for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you shall be

clean from all your sins before the Lord. [for a year]

We probably know about the Day of Atonement because we know a little Hebrew. You didn’t know that

– but you do – Yom Kippur. If you want to understand how Jesus is a Priest, you have to understand the

Old Testament expression of Yom Kippur and the high priest’s job description. Then we will look at how

Hebrews, a New Testament book, interprets how Jesus fulfills the longing for that high priest.

Instead of reading through Leviticus 16 so that you would better understand Yom Kippur, the Day

of Atonement, the day we are paid for and how Jesus fulfills that --- I am just going to do it for you

[somewhat of a reenactment] and then we will turn to the book of Hebrews and ask: Wait a minute. How

is Jesus a fulfillment of those promises?

Now I will tell you about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It was done in the Tabernacle

originally [the moveable tent of worship during the 40 years in the wilderness], and then later on in one of

the Temples. Actually our sanctuary is built somewhat like the Temple and so it will help you to visualize

it.

1. Outside in our lobby and even out under the oak trees, that would be called The Court of the

Gentiles and The Court of Women. Both groups would stay there.

2. Inside, as we get closer to the Temple itself, [indicating the seats for all the worshipers] there

would be a courtyard with walls all around us, and we would come in these two doors, and this

bottom part for us would be The Court of the Israelites. – In the Court of the Israelites, there

would be a giant cauldron or tank for cleansing ourselves over here. Dead center in the middle

would be a very large place to offer sacrifices, an alter right in the middle. I can’t go there and

it would be difficult so I will put that over here. –

3. There would be a wall here [indicating leaving the seating area and ascending the stairs to the

stage]. So there would be an enclosed structure and they would walk up a few steps. The first

part that dominates the square footage was called The Holy Place. In the Holy Place, there

were multiple utensils to be used, which I can’t go into the details of the utensils to be used out

here. But the one that really matters in The Holy Place would be this, a place for incense.

4. As you farther and farther into the Holy Place, you get to a giant curtain. Behind that curtain is

The Temple Overview


the most holy place, called The Holy of Holies, and no one was ever to go back there except

for one time a year, during the Day of Atonement, and it had to only be the High Priest.

Behind that giant curtain which was probably where our archway is to the back where our

curtains are, was the Ark of the Covenant. [You know what the Ark of the Covenant is

because you have seen the movie “The Raiders of the Lost Ark” so thank you Steven

Spielberg.] There was actually a fair amount of truth to that premise: Don’t look inside.


Inside the Ark of the Covenant, it contained three things, which were all provisions by

God, which man rejected. Those three things actually act as an expression of God’s grace but

also our judgment.

a. One of the things in the Ark of the Covenant is the tablets which God gave Moses on

Mt. Sinai – the Ten Commandments which were a gift from God. They told us how to

relate to God and how to relate to each other. Yet none have ever kept them. We don’t

care about how to treat each other and we don’t care about how we should love the

Lord our God first and foremost and not use His name in vain. The tables are inside

and that is why it is called the Ark of the Covenant; those tablets were the covenant

piece, those two tablets.

b. Also in there is Aaron’s Rod. These guys were shepherds and hikers. Aaron’s rod was

an icon of his authority gifted by God to the people so that they would be safe. Follow

your leaders and you will be safe. I speak to them, so just follow them. – There was a

mutiny – of course there was. Whoever God puts in charge, we want to rebel against.

There was an actual situation where God miraculously caused Aaron’s rod to bloom, to

become alive again to prove God was still with Aaron. Yet the people still mutinied. It

was a symbol of God’s provision for leadership and mankind’s rebellion against that.

c. The last item in the Ark of the Covenant was this jar of Manna. Manna was the way

God provided food for the Israelites. It was supposed to be maybe a month’s trip to the

Promised Land but because of the Israelites’ lack of faith and rebellion against

leadership, they spent 40 years in the wilderness wandering. During that period of time,

they needed food. Six days out of seven, God would provide manna. Manna literally

translates: What is this? Every day the people would go out and say: What is this? It

was mostly like oatmeal and they would have this provision every day. They could be

fed every day. The people said: Is that all? That is it? Really? Daily bread? That is all

we get? - So they rebelled against God’s provisions.

So in summary, the Israelites rejected God’s provision for them; they rebelled

against God’s authority; and they completely ignored God’s rules. These three items


were all contained in the Ark of the Covenant --- God’s gifts and our hatred towards

those gifts.

d. On top of that, to seal the Ark was the lid called The Mercy Seat or the Seat of

Atonement – the seat to get things paid for. On the lid were these seraphim, angelic

beings are looking and some of their wings are covering their eyes and other wings are

covering the lid of the Ark itself. These things in the Ark represent justice, things that

have to be dealt with in these areas of God’s mercy being rejected.

The point is: that is the real estate, that is the building and what it looks like for us. That is what they dealt

with, whether it was the Tabernacle [moveable place of worship] when they were in the desert or the

Temple [permanent building] when they settled in Jerusalem.

One day per year, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, this whole area would be cleared out of all men

and priests, the Court of the Israelites. I am going to be that high priest which means I had to have the

right family tree. I would come in and be the high priest and I would bring in five animals: 2 goats, 2

rams, and a young bull. I would bring all of those in and I would be dressed in my high priestly garments,

which were extravagant, breath-taking. I would have a robe on and a breastplate over that with jewels on

it for each of the twelve tribes. And I would wear a head piece. –

A. Bathe and change clothes (Leviticus 16:4) But on this day, I would come over here

and take off my high priestly garments because I would have to take a bath using this

big tub of water. I would take off all of my clothes and then I would change into

nothing but white linen – my under garments, my outer garments and I would have a

white turban on. What scholars will tell you is that when man comes to man to

represent God as a prophet, he will come in the splendor of a king. But when man goes

before God, he will be nothing but a peasant. --- The white linen is supposed to

represent purity and simplicity. – What are we going to bring to impress Him? Nothing.

– So I take a bath and change clothes.

B. The sin offering of the high priest (Leviticus 16:11-14) I come over here to the altar

and bring the bull up onto the altar and slit it throat. I get a bowlful of its blood and

then I come up here and I need to wash for myself and for my family’s sake, I will

The Preparation of the High Priest and sin offering for priest and family


have to go into the Holy Place but I can’t go into the Holy of Holies because if I see it I

could die.

So I leave the bowl here and I throw some incense on these hot coals (the incense

stand is here) and it will fill the room with smoke. I will take some of that incense and

go ahead behind that curtain and leave it there, hoping that the room would fill so

full of smoke that I would be blinded from seeing the Ark, lest I envision God in

His splendor and be struck dead. (Lev. 16:12-13) When enough time has passed, I

will take the bowl of the bull’s blood and go back to the Mercy Seat and splash on

it seven times, the perfect/complete number, hoping that blood would cover the

vision of those seraphim so that they could not see the sin for me or my family.

(Lev. 16:14) I could be safe to continue the ritual of the Day of Atonement.

This happened once a year, every year, just to get me, the high priest, right.

If you fast forward into the New Testament in Hebrews 10, it says – all of this we are talking

about was a shadow. C. S. Lewis did not come up with that phrase:

Hebrews 10:1-4 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 …. But those sacrifices are

an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take

away sins.

But when Jesus was the High Priest, it says in Heb. 7

Heb. 7:26, 27 Such a High Priest meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set

apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, He does not

need to offer sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He

sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered himself.

When Jesus came as the High Priest, He didn’t need the bull offering because He was sinless; I just

thought I would make that distinction because now that I have made my sin offering for myself and my

family, I can make a sin offering for the people.

Jesus was the fulfillment


I will take the two goats and draw lots and the winning goat gets to die because the losing goat has to

suffer. The winning goat is chosen to die and he will be a sin offering.

Goat #1: (Lev. 16:15) I will take him back to the altar and slit his throat and get a bowl of his

blood and come back to the Holy Place, to the Holy of Holies and I will sprinkle again, seven times on the

Mercy Seat, to appease the transgressions against God. Then on my way out, and I am backing my way

out, I am cleansing this whole Holy Place – the Temple and the Courtyard – so that we can use it again

next year. So I sprinkle seven times on the incense. I come down to the Court of the Israelites and I

combine the goat’s blood with the bull’s blood, mixing that together, and I am covering that altar. There

are four posts on each of the corners, which are called horns, and I am rubbing those down. I am

spreading this everywhere. It is like a Clorox ammonia mix to cleanse all of the sin out. If you see in

Leviticus 16:16-18, it uses the word transgressions and rebellions and sin – all these descriptive words

being dealt with, cleansed.

What do you think I look like at this point, spraying and splattering all this blood on this white

linen garment?

Goat #2: I take the other goat. (Lev. 16:20-22) The only time this word is used in the Bible but the

word is used several times in this chapter, it is called the scape goat. (16:8, 10, 26) In Hebrew, it is aza

zel. They don’t know how to translate it so much as it means to be utterly decimated. It means to be taken

away forever. As the high priest, I would put my hands on the head of this goat and I would confess all

the sins and transgressions and inadequacies and the forgetfulness of the nation of Israel on to this goat.

Then I would take a scarlet rope and tie it around the horns of this scape goat and I would turn that goat

over to a righteous leader who would take this goat outside the city, as far away as possible. Sometimes

there would be ten stations to feed and hydrate this righteous man – not the goat – so that the man could

go as far as possible. Then the righteous man would leave the goat in a gorge to die a painful,

excruciating, lonely, dreadful death; sin had to be taken away.

Now I come over here (16:23-28) and take a bath in this water. I pile up these bloody clothes now

and put on my priestly garments. Now things are ready to go again.

Now that has been done and the place has been cleansed, I can offer sacrifice. I have two more

animals left – two more rams. I take the ram and put him up on the altar. I slaughter the ram and it is a

burnt offering, a celebration offering. You will be with us another year, promise? Then I take the other

The offering for the Temple and the People


ram and put it up on that altar and slit its throat for my people as an at of celebration and worship, a burnt

offering.

But what to do with this? The old clothes. Towards the end of Lev. 16, it says we take the old

clothes and put them on that altar. We gather the carcass of the bull and the carcass of the two rams and

the carcass of the goat, and we have another righteous person come in who takes those far out of the city

to burn, to completely extinguish.

Then the righteous man who took the scapegoat away, he comes back and changes clothes and

bathes himself. They take his clothes and burn them in the pile.

The gentleman who is in charge of burning everything, he takes a bath, changes clothes, and they

burn all of his things. Everything that has been remotely related to this experience, what was touching

them, has been taken far outside the city gates and is burned. –

Does it sound like overkill? It is only because we are flippant about sin. We have indiscretions. We

kind of lost ourselves. It was in a moment of weakness. –

That is not the way God looks at things. That is not what the Day of Atonement is supposed to

picture for us.

What would it be like to have all of this done for us by Jesus the Christ on the Day of Atonement -

-- I mean the real Day of Atonement was Good Friday. It was when Jesus died and played the part as the

scapegoat and the ram and the other goat that was slaughtered. On that day, Good Friday, two things

happened on the real Day of Atonement that has never happened before and will never happen again. This

is important because God was trying to end us, you and I, a message that was unforgettable and extremely

vivid. He wanted us to see what was real – not the shadows any more.

A. When Jesus Christ died on the Cross, that curtain (between the Holy Place and the Holy of

Holies) was torn and it was torn from the top down. You and I can try to get back there by tearing that but

we could never get it started.

It says in the Gospels that the curtain was torn from the top down because God was saying:

We can see each other again. His blood has covered you and I cannot see the sin anymore. It is important

and you need to know this. It is not as though the radioactivity of God’s holiness was diminished in the

least. What happened was that the blood of Christ covers us and allows us to endure it. God cannot (not

will not) He cannot lower His standards of perfection for intimacy. So He made it right and covered us

and then He opened the curtain. (Matthew 27:50, 51)

Two Things different with Jesus


B. The second thing that happened on Good Friday (it had never happened before and never will

again) is that the High Priest sat down. (Mark 16:19; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 10:11, 12)Everything was

done; the bill was paid; the principal was finally erased. We were complete and it is finished.

So, then how should you live? For 1,800 years, if they participated in it, they would be longing for

that Day of Atonement, that it would be made real and here is what happens when people understand the

sacrifice of Jesus and the reality of that.

A. They hope well. Aristotle said: Hope is a waking dream. – You know when you dream at

night and you think: Good night, that was the greatest dream in my life. I can’t believe that. – Then you

wake up and think – oh, that’s too bad. Hope is when you are walking around, carrying that with you.

Look at what Hebrews says about this waking dream:

Hebrews 6:19, 20 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul …

What is an anchor for? To keep you steady in a storm. What do you use as an anchor for your soul? Your

good works? You being better than the guy down the road from you? Really? Because the writer of

Hebrews says: Listen, you remember the Day of Atonement, we have this hope as the anchor for our soul.

… firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, …

Now we know what they means. He entered the Holy of Holies.

… where Jesus who went before us has entered on our behalf. He has become our high

priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

He is not even from the family tree of Aaron because that is not good enough. He is from this other family

tree, from this gentleman in the Old Testament whom Abraham bumped into, whose name was

Melchizedek. That name literally means the King of Righteousness. Jesus is from that lineage and that is

how He gets to be a priest. He went before us so that we would have an anchor for our soul. What

happens when you have such great hope? You live differently. You could not do the commandments of

God and they are not burdensome to you. Have you ever been so in love with someone because of what

they have done for you that you would do anything for them? Love and gratitude will take you places that

duty will never take you. If you can conceptualize that you were rescued from a last minute execution,

and it was a one-time deal that paid all of your debts, wouldn’t that cause you to be motivated intrinsically

to live an entirely different life? Absolutely.

In some circles it is called the Exchanged Life and that means Jesus exchanged your sin [that was

a good gift to give Him] for His righteousness. Knowing that, it changes everything – if you hope well.

Application: So, how then should you live?


B. The second thing you should be absolutely confident that you are clean. It is done. Look at

all that happened to make that work right. Again, you go to the book of Hebrews 10:19-22 which tells us

how to make sense out of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, how to bring Yom Kippur into the

events that Jesus participated in. Look at how much confidence there is in this phrase.

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place

by the blood of Jesus, …

What Jews feared to think about would be to go in here and then behind that curtain.

… by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body …

Jesus’ body was torn open for us.

… and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a

sincere heart in full assurance of faith, …

What is God saying in verses 19, 20, 21, 22? Draw near to Me with full assurance of faith.

… having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our

bodied washed with pure water.

Don’t hang your head going into the presence of God. [I know it makes perfect sense to be afraid of the

presence of God or to wonder. But think about what has really happened.]

It says in Hebrews 4:14, talking again about this very thing about confidence. We don’t have a

priest who can’t relate to us. We have a high priest who has endured everything exactly like us – except

that He never sinned – so approach the throne of grace and mercy with confidence because Jesus will

intercede for you.

The point is that some of you here today, you wash your hands like Lady Macbeth. [Shakespeare,

Macbeth, Act V, Scene I: “Out, damned spot! Out, I say.” – Trying to rid herself of the guilt of murder.]

You live in the shadow of past sins and the whole experience that the Day of Atonement, that

Jesus endured for us is to give you the freedom and confidence to say: I am going to walk up there

without stuttering, with my shoulders back, and my head up --- because I am covered in the sprinkling of

His blood.

You should hope right. You should have confidence.

C. The last thing you should do is relax. It is done. – It is completed.

Hebrews 10:11,1 2 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.


But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He SAT DOWN

at the right hand of God.

It does not just say He sat down. It says He sat down at the right hand of the Father. This is the seat of

authority, the seat of power. He is done. He is not standing, giving more sacrifices, year after year. It is as

though He overpaid.

What is Jesus Christ doing sitting here and waiting? 1. Jesus is waiting for justice. It says so in the very next verse.

Hebrews 10:13, 14 Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool,

because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

This chair is very comfortable and it just needs one thing – some enemies to rest my heels on.

2. Jesus is also sitting here to intercede for us. He speaks to the Father for us. I am just going

to Hebrews to show you what is happening in real life.

Hebrews 7:24, 25 … but because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood.

Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He

always lives to INTERCEDE for them.

When John writes, the people are being persecuted unto death. They are having their doubts and they are

giving up on faith and committing sins because of that. John writes this;

1 John 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody

does sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the

Righteous One.

Again, you did that again. Oh, the shame. I will talk to the Father for you.

The Day of Atonement, friends, was a hope in the hearts of so many thousands of people that you

and I get to experience because Jesus did it for real. So, you don’t have to live defeated. You don’t have to

live in the shadow of your sins. You don’t have to live in the consequence of repetitious feeling as though

you have worn down the grace of God. This Priest is our priest and He has died on our behalf.

Some of you, you have told me your stories. “You don’t know what I have done.”

If Jesus were here today, I think He would say something like this, sitting in this chair: “You don’t

know what I have done. You don’t know where I have been because I have been through those doors and I

have had My body torn in half so that curtain would open. My body was taken outside the city gates,

covered in nothing but linen like a poor pauper’s clothing to die an excruciating, painful, lonely death.


So, I am Jesus and so I know where you have been and I know what you have done but you have got to

understand where I have been and what I have done.”

Then He sat down. So, who is your priest? Some of you still think that you are bringing something

to the Holy Place. You are going to church. Or, you are helping people and all that is good. But that

means nothing to God. He is looking to see if you are covered by the High Priest’s blood.

If you have never made a particular decision where you say: I am giving up anything except

clinging to this thing that took place on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Do that today. You bring

nothing but sin to this and you receive the righteousness of Christ.

But for many of us, we know that but we don’t experience it. So, my challenge for you is that you

would live with great hope. Would you live with this overflowing understanding of the Great Exchange

that has taken place? That you would be motivated primarily by gratitude, overflowing love,

unquenchable joy. It is going to take you places you never thought you could go. You will take

responsibility for things you never thought you could admit to. You will care for people you don’t even

like. Try this for this Christmas season. It is what your heart longs for. Let’s do that.

Let’s celebrate advent – the coming of the great High Priest and His name is Jesus the Christ.

Dear Lord Jesus,

You are our great High Priest. You have done everything. You have cleansed us and then you took

sin far away from us. Then you sat down. There was nothing else to do or say. So, God, I ask that Your

Spirit would help us understand that and grasp that so we might enjoy it. Joy would be this marking

attribute of what motivates us to do your will and it would not be a burden to us. Let us dance and hum

and whistle and sing to express our love. In Jesus’ name.

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