Great High Priest

Good morning. This morning was one of those services where you've already heard the sermon. We sang it, we heard it read, we heard it prayed, and I praise God for that. One, no matter how bad the sermon is, you've already heard what I intended for you to hear. Secondly, that's how you proclaim the gospel to me and to one another. Us singing together the truths of the gospel is how we encourage one another, so thank you for singing with us. The negative consequences, I'm saying so loud, I think I pulled something, so you can pray for me to that end. In the last few months, we've called five elders, called five pastors. We, as a church, called them out. They've been ordained. We had a service recognizing their ordination. It was a classic. Christian ordination service where Pastor Russell, he prayed for the congregation and their response to the elders. I prayed for the elders and their leading of the church. You have the two parts there, the two parties, both given a charge and a prayer. It's important to remember that that service wasn't when they were ordained or called. That was simply a service recognizing publicly that these are the men we've set apart. They were called when the church voted on them that particular Wednesday night. It's the church that set them aside. That was merely a service. Very much like baptism. Baptism isn't when you're saved. Baptism is the symbol or the public celebration of Christ's death and resurrection being applied to you by faith. This morning, we're going to be looking at the priesthood. We're going to be looking at how God uses, calls and equips saints for his work. And as we think about your pastor, your pastors, your elders, and as we think about the priesthood, one of the things that really stands out is God has always used sinful men for his glory. This is something that's shocking throughout Scripture. He calls men to his work, even knowing that those men are going to fail. We follow the life of Moses for so long, seeing his failure over and over again. Still, God said, I'm going to graciously call you to myself and call you to my purposes. This morning, we're going to be studying the call of the priest and how that has its end in Jesus Christ. Now, it's St. Patrick's Day and I didn't forget my green. I intentionally wore my orange. Because I believe that the priesthood ends in Christ. We do not need priests anymore. We're all priests because we have all been gifted as priests in the name of Jesus Christ, who is our great High Priest. The message this morning is this. Be confident in Christ, our great High Priest, who is our perfect mediator and calls us to serve Him. Now, we're still in Exodus. We're still doing our study through Exodus, but we're going to jump from chapter 20, the Ten Commandments, and we're going to go to chapter 29. And really, we're not going to be there that long. We're going to go to Exodus 4. I interpret the Old Testament in light of the New. I read the Old in light of the New. And so there's no reason to go into all the detail of Exodus 29 because we're not going to be calling priests like that. Now, we want to see what that's pointing toward. And we'll see that very clearly in Hebrews 4. So those are the two chapters of the Bible you'll want to go ahead and maybe put your bulletin and something else in because we're flipping back and forth. Let me give us some background. Israel was in Egypt. They're redeemed from slavery. God called them out to be his people. Then in chapters 19 and 20, he made them his own nation. He said, you'll be my holy nation, my world priesthood. He gave them the laws. He's preparing them to be his people in his land who will be his nation, who will be a light to the world. We're going to go ahead and skip over some parts. We'll come back to them. We're going to go and skip over some parts and get to the priesthood. And I wanted to look at the priest in the temple because that really is going to get us ready. for Resurrection Sunday. We're going to go back, we're going to look at chapter 24, we'll look at some other chapters, but I want us to go ahead and get ready for Resurrection Sunday. And it's amazing, chapter 25 through 30 of Exodus, and chapter 36 all the way through Leviticus 7, and then many more chapters are dedicated to how Israel is supposed to approach God in worship. Exodus 19 is one of the key passages for how Israel is supposed to approach God and worship because they are sinful men and women and God is holy and they have to come to him very carefully with fear, with trembling, according to how God has called them. Now, many of you liked the order of the Ten Commandments, and so I just figured we'll keep doing that. Our sermon will have four main questions. First, what was the priesthood? Secondly, what was the background or what's the rationale of the priesthood? Third, how did Christ fulfill the priesthood? And then how are we now called to live? Because Christ is our great high priest. So it's the same formula we've been using through most of the Ten Commandments. What was the priesthood? So we'll start in Exodus 29. What is the rationale or background of the priesthood? And then how did Christ fulfill the priesthood and the calling on us afterwards? Let's go to Exodus 29. If you didn't have a Bible, there are Bibles in front of you and the pews, I hope, somewhere. Or maybe there's one behind you, if not in front of you. You can find Exodus 29 on page 69 in the Pew Bible. I want you to listen for a few things as I read it. I'm not going to read it in its entirety. We're really just looking for the ordination of the priest here. There are six steps to ordain a priest. First, he must be washed, then clothed, then anointed, and then three sacrifices are made to prepare this priest. 1 through 9 includes the washing, clothing, and anointing, verses 10 through 14 demonstrates the bulls being sacrificed to sanctify the place. 15 and 18 also talk about, they speak of the ram being sacrificed to sanctify the place. Then 19 and 25 is where we're going to need to slow down just a little bit, because that's the ram sacrificed to atone for the sins of the priest. That's how the priest is prepared for worship. And notice, with each sacrifice, they're commanded to lay their hands on the head of the animal. They're signifying the laying on of sin, the transfer of sin, the transfer of the guilt to the sacrifice. Exodus 29. Now this is what you shall do to them, to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priest. Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish, and eleven bread and eleven cakes mixed with oil, and eleven wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of the fine wheat flour. You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and bring the bull and the two rams. You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod of the breastplate and gird him with a skillfully woven band of the ephod. Then you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on his turban. You shall take the anointed oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them. You shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them, and the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall adorn, ordain Aaron and his sons. Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and you shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger. In the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. You shall take all the fat that covers the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them and burn them on the altar. But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering. Then you shall take one of the rams And Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, and ye shall kill the ram, and take the blood, and throw it against the sides of the altar. Ye shall cut the ram into pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with the pieces in its head, and burn the whole ram on the altar as a burnt offering to the Lord, as a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. Ye shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, and ye shall kill the ram, and take part of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hand, and on the great toe of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. Then he shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons, and on his sons' garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons' garments with him." Something I assume you all heard there. This is a bloody mess. There's blood everywhere. They're killing animals. They're sprinkling the blood. They're not trying to contain it. They're spreading it around as much as possible. There is a bloody ordination service. First, the priests, they must be washed, they must be clothed appropriately. And the clothes are very important. The ephod, that's actually in chapter 8. You can read that later. But the main issue there, the main point there is that there's two stones, one on each shoulder of the priest. On each stone, there's six names, the names of six tribes. And then there's a breastplate with 12 stones, each stone representing a tribe. When the priest would go in, He's representing all the tribes of Israel. He is the representative for them. He is the one that takes them, presenting them before God, presenting their sins so their sins may be atoned for. Here we see the main basic point of the priest. He represents Israel to God. He makes a sacrifice to God for them. In order to do this, he must be washed, dressed, and anointed. Now the death of the sacrifice of the bull and the first ram. Notice they don't get to eat any of that. That is for the Lord alone and that is for the place. It's to sanctify the altar. Those sacrifices are specifically for the altar. Nothing unique with the priest there. And so let's just go to the second ram. This is to sanctify the priest. hands on the head, again, symbolizing the transfer of sin and guilt. And then they must take the blood and touch their right ear, touch their thumb, and touch their big toe on their right side. And then the blood is sprinkled upon them. The point here is that they themselves are sinners. And they must have their sins atoned for. They must first present an offering for their sinfulness so that then they can go before a sinful people and represent them. Now, this really points to the problem of this sacrificial system. The priests weren't the perfect representative. They were sinners. The law of Moses is pointing us to something. This system, as we read in Hebrews 10, has been done away with because what it was anticipating, what it was looking for, has been realized in Jesus Christ. We can praise God for this because there's no more blood required. More importantly, our own sin has been forgiven. The law anticipated something that's greater, the great high priest who is without sin. Now, there's three things that I think while we're going back and looking at Exodus, the Old Testament, as we look at the sacrificial system, it is supposed to teach us, I think, at least three things. First, sin is serious. Sin is not to be taken lightly. Our sin is offensive to God. Our sin is offensive to a holy God. It's not that God is bloodthirsty, it's that God is holy and we have rebelled against him and spat against him and kicked against him. We refuse him and his righteous rule over us. We must see that this sacrificial system shows us how serious we should recognize our sin to be. It's offensive to a holy God. The second thing related to that, the consequence of sin is death. That's why there's blood everywhere. Death is the consequence of sin. When we sin against God, the consequence is death. God will pour his wrath out upon us when we well now and when we die. The consequence of sin is death. God created us for life. Third, and this is the anticipation. We need someone to die in our place. Sin is serious, it's offensive before God. The consequence of sin is death. We need someone to die in our place. Forgiveness is costly. Now let's look to the background of the priesthood. And as always, we're going to go back to Genesis 1 through 3. This is one of the reasons I chose to preach through Genesis, one of the first books I wanted to preach through it. Genesis 1 through 3, it's all there, everything we need to know for the background of much of what we see in Scripture. We go back to the background of Genesis, of the priesthood in Genesis, because Adam is the first priest. Adam, as the image bearer of God, he represents God to all of creation as the royal ambassador, but he also represents all of creation back to God. Adam represented all of humanity when he sinned against God. Let's first look at some key words here that help us see that the garden was the first temple and Adam was the first priest. Adam is called to serve and keep the garden in Genesis 2.15. These same two words are used to describe the job qualification or the job requirements of a priest. We saw that even in Exodus 29. So these priests may serve me. A priest serves and protects. You can see this in Numbers 3, 7 through 8. The priest is supposed to protect the holy place of God and serve God there. There we see that the same words used for the Levitical priest, same words used for Adam. Secondly, God's presence in the garden is described as walking in Genesis 3.8. This is echoed in Leviticus 26, verses 11 and 12. God is walking there in the temple. The garden was a temple where God and man met and Adam represented all of humanity to God. Now this is important because he was our legal representative. When Adam sinned against God, we all sinned with him. When Adam rebelled against God, refused His right rule, He represented us. We see this in Romans 5. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through the one man, Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned, For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one to come." He'll go on to say that there's one trespass and it led to the condemnation of all people. There was one disobedience and it led to many being made sinners. Adam's sin was representative of all of us. Now we are all born dead because of Adam's sin. We're all born with the desire to sin because Adam gave in to Satan's temptation. We're all now dead because Adam represented us in his rebellion. Now, before we get too upset at Adam, we have to recognize that Christ, when we die and we are judged, he is going to hold us accountable for our works. And if we have not believed in Christ, he has forgiven us. We have all rebelled in our own way, and we are all culpable for our own sin. But the point here is that Adam was already a priest, one man representing all of humanity, and the priests are echoing Adam representing Israel, the new people of God for God. Now, if you're not a Christian this morning, I realize this sounds offensive. Why am I held accountable? Why am I held culpable for this one man sin long ago? The issue, again, is you're going to be held accountable for your own sin. You are under the wrath of God because you have sinned against God and you have refused his right rule. The good news is, is that Jesus Christ is a new Adam beginning a new humanity. And if you believe in his death for your death. His death for your sin, then you can have new life and eternal life in Him. If you're interested in that, please do not leave here without talking to me about it. Let's move to how Christ fulfills the priesthood. How does Christ fulfill the priesthood? Well, first, Jesus is the new Adam. As we've already said, He begins a new humanity with His life. He now stands as a new head over a new humanity. As Christ is the new Adam, there's actually three offices he fulfills. He's the prophet, he's the king, he's the priest. Now, these are the three offices that we typically categorize Christ and his work in because these are how he fulfills the different offices of the Old Testament. He is the perfect king. He is the perfect prophet. He is the perfect priest. Now, prophet and king, those are how Christ represents the Father's right rule towards us. As a prophet, he declares the truth of God in a way that no other prophet could. As Hebrews 1 begins, God spoke through many prophets, but now he's spoken through his son. So the prophetic rule is him representing God to us and his truth. The kingship of Jesus Christ represents Christ's rule over us. The priest is a little different. Because the priest is Christ coming on our behalf before God, leading us into his presence. We'll be staying now in Hebrews 4, beginning of verse 14, and really chapter 5 of Hebrews. It's an unfortunate page break, or chapter break. The chapter really should begin in Hebrews 4. I want you to listen for a few things. First, the main thing we're looking at is how is Christ compared to the priests? How is the great high priest compared to the numerous Aaronic priests? And there's three comparisons. One, how they're appointed. Secondly, how they identify with sinners. And third, how they are qualified to make a sacrifice for sinners. So, I'll begin in verse 14 of Hebrews 4. This we found on page 1002 of your Pew Bible. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is in every who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. And let us then with confidence draw near the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was." Hear the comparison. So also, Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reference. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. The first thing we see is how they're appointed. The priest in the Levitical order, the priest that we read about in Exodus 29, they're chosen from among men. And they're chosen from among sinful men. They're sinful men chosen from among sinful men. Again, the amazing part is that God uses sinful men for His purposes. Christ, in contrast, isn't just another man. He's the Son. He is the Son of God, who is God Himself, but is taken upon flesh. He's not just any man. He is the God-man. He is the perfect humanity. He is the perfect man who has divine power and fulfills the divine will of God. Hebrews 1 points us back. He's greater than angels. He's greater than any other prophet. He is the Son of God who has come to bring about the beginning of God's kingdom. God appoints the priest. Aaron, his line was chosen, that's clear in verse 4. Christ is not of the Aaronic line. He's of the line of Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek, you can go back to Genesis 14 to see the background here. He's this great mysterious figure. He just kind of drops in on the scene, gives a blessing, sends some great blessings to Abraham, and then he just disappears. He is very significant and then all of a sudden he is brought back in in this very important sermon that we have recorded in Hebrews. The point here is the Aaronic priesthood, they needed a new priest year after year after year. They had to make a new sacrifice year after year after year. You can see this emphasized in Hebrews 9.26 and in Melchizedek's priesthood in chapter 7 of Hebrews. Christ's priesthood is better than the Aaronic priesthood because as Melchizedek has no beginning or end recorded in scripture, Christ's ministry as a priest, it has no beginning, it has no end. He needs no replacement. He, as the perfect priest, brought the perfect sacrifice which did away with sin once and for all for all who believed. He is the perfect priest who cannot be replaced. The Aaronic priesthood, that's where we see it was already a broken system pointing to something that was perfect. It was already an incomplete forgiveness pointing to the great high priest who would provide perfect forgiveness and perfect rest. This is why we rest in Christ and him alone and we need no other priest. So we see they're appointed differently. Aaron is from a lineage, and it's year after year after year. Jesus Christ, it's his eternal right as the son of God, Almighty God, who became a man who is never replaced. The second way that they compare Christ and the priest is how they identify with the sinners they represent. The Aaronic priests, they've got the ephah, they've got the garment on that shows they're representing. But Hebrews chapter 5, verse 2, He says he can deal gently, speaking of the priest. He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Aaron and his sons and those after him, they were able to identify with those they're representing because there were sinners just like them. They were weak just like them. They had betrayed God just like the people they're representing. Now, I just want to point out something that I think is hopeful. that Hebrews isn't saying there's something wrong with the priest in this way, that it is helpful that they had sinned and because they had sinned, they could then sympathize, they could then identify with them better. When we're giving counsel to people who are in trouble, when we're giving counsel to people in their sin, if we can't first recognize our own weakness and identify with their sin, we probably should just keep our counsel to ourselves. We must first be able to Sympathize, identify with their weakness so that we can give them a counsel that is full of grace and the gospel. But let me move on to the great high priest and how they're compared to the priest. The priest are sinners. They have weakness. But Christ, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Christ is able to identify with sinners, not because he is a sinner, but because he himself learned obedience through what he suffered. Now, this is a real interesting, somewhat problematic passage for some. Because if it's saying Christ wasn't obedient, then he learned how to be obedient. That can't be what it's saying because he's already declared, although he was a son, because he's a son, he's almighty God. He's always righteous. He's always good. He's always been obedient to the father. And what it's saying, I believe, is just that he's experienced a new kind of. Of obedience. He's experienced what obedience is in a different way because he experienced it through suffering. Christ, first of all, identifies with us and the obedience we're called to by suffering temptation through his whole life. He suffered every kind of temptation, but yet he was without sin. More so, the greatest suffering that Christ suffered, the greatest suffering. was when he died on behalf of sinners. He's able to identify with us, not because he was a sinner, but because he himself took the wrath of God that was due to our sin. Now, the beauty of this is that he is able to comfort us. He is the big brother who is able to recognize our temptation, recognize our discomfort, recognize our suffering and lead us out with great healing. The third comparison, how are they qualified? Verse 3 says the Aaronic priest said they had to make a sacrifice for their own sins. They had to be made better by the sacrifice. They had to have their sins removed in order to make the sacrifice. Christ in chapter 4 verse 15, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we were yet without sin. In chapter 5 verse 9, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believe. The main difference here, there's no sacrifice that needs to be made for Christ to make, to remove his sin. He is sinless. He is the sinless great high priest that presents the sinless sacrifice, his own life. That's why he's able to give eternal life to anyone who believes in him. He is the perfect high priest who represents God, who represents man, and he himself gave his life so that whoever believes in him, they have life. So what does this mean for us today? We look at chapter five versus one through 10, which is really the rationale, let's go back to four, 14 through 16. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." The first thing we need to see is that we have one priest and that's all we need. The Roman Catholic Church, who believes the priesthood continues, they just elected a pope. So I think this is timely. We're Protestants. We reject the pope. We reject the Roman Catholic continuation of a priest. Because Jesus Christ is the only priest we need. He alone is the one who gives us the grace. Now we are all called to be priests, which means we're all gifted with the Holy Spirit. We're all gifted with the gospel so that we can encourage one another. We can edify one another. We can all admonish one another. But we do not need another priest to represent us before God because no one can improve upon the work of Jesus Christ. What Christ gives us is confidence. What Christ gives us is confidence. This is why we're commanded to hold fast to our confession. The author of Hebrews declares, hold fast to your confession. Really what he's saying there is keep holding fast to your confession. The audience that he is preaching to, or this is now written to, they were Christian Jews who were being persecuted and were being tempted to leave the faith of Christ and go back to the Mosaic wall. And the author is telling them, keep holding firm, hold fast the confession of faith. Do not be tempted to let go. The key here is that we hold firm our confession in Christ because he is the one solid foundation upon which we can build our lives. We must hold firm the foundation that is in Jesus Christ and his work. Now, it's important. We don't put confidence in our experience. A lot of folks want to keep building up their assurance by what they experience emotionally. They don't build confidence. He doesn't say build your confidence in your excitement for Jesus Christ. He doesn't even say build your confidence in your ability to repent and your quality of faith. He says, hold firm your faith in what Christ has done and who he is. Salvation is from Christ and Him alone. We are to put our confidence in nothing but Christ. Many will be tempted to put their confidence in a past prayer or commitment. It's not what you once gave to Christ, it's what Christ has once and for all done for you. Your faith must be in what He has done and where He continues to stand. I want to say that along with this other application, Your profession cannot contradict your pattern. Your confidence is in who Christ is and what he's done, and your life cannot contradict your confession. To hold firm to your foundation means that your faith has fruit. Again, Hebrews is written to those who are being persecuted. Their security is in Christ, and they must continue to profess him and live for him. The Holy Lamb was slain for sin. That was not a cheap forgiveness. We cannot treat his grace as cheap. Those who recognize the consequence of their sin and that the great cost of Christ, it has been laid to him and his death. We don't live for Christ. We don't live for his glory. Or the songs we sang this morning were about when Satan tempts us to despair. Satan will tempt us to doubt our salvation. And there's two places you typically look. You look internal or you look up. Those are the two typical places we're going to look. And I think some good self-evaluation, some introspection is good, but the author of Hebrews doesn't say look inside. He tells you to look up. If you're wondering, if you are saved, it's not a matter of how the quality of your faith, the quality of your repentance. The quality of your life is if Christ has died for you. If you are named in the Lamb's Book of Life, that's where confidence is. Yes, introspection is helpful if we're living that out. But the first place we look for confidence is up. He tells us again to be confident in another way. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. The throne of grace is where Christ now stands right in the Father. He's our perfect mediator. He is the one who can sympathize with us in our every need. He is the one that when we are in need, we look to him and he has the divine balm that can heal our weakness, our sin and our troubles. What's amazing here is the Israelites They can only go to God fearfully. We see this contrast later in Hebrews, they can only go to God fearfully because the priest offered imperfect sacrifices, they themselves were imperfect to represent them, but we do not go to God fearfully. We are invited into the presence of God to come before him boldly because of Jesus Christ and his perfect priesthood and his perfect sacrifice. That's why we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. It's not our authority that we pray under. No, it's him, the son of God, who speaks the true word of God. And we go before God in his name. It's because of the confidence we have in Christ that we draw near to God. We seek him with boldness. If you're not a Christian this morning. You can seek mercy. You can find mercy, and there's only one name in which you can find it. I pray God is convicting of your sin, and I pray you're overwhelmed with how serious sin is and offensive to God and the consequences of sin. And I pray that you will see that Christ has died for your sin. You can enter boldly in the name of Jesus Christ into God's presence and ask for forgiveness. A final application. We began talking about the elders and how they've been called out and they've been gifted. They have new responsibilities. They have new requirements. Every child of God is called by Him, equipped by Him, and called to serve Him. We are now all priests. That's why we don't need another priest. Christ is a great high priest and He allows us, He calls us the royal priesthood, the holy nation. We're all priests. That means we are all called to encourage, admonish and challenge one another in the gospel. We are called to proclaim the gospel to one another and to lift one another up. We have been given gifts to use for Christ and under his headship in his body. How has God gifted you? More importantly, how are you using those gifts for his body for his glory. There's no category for retiring from being used by God. There are Christians who are using their gifts for God, and there are Christians who are resurrected in God's presence. I want to challenge us all to recognize we have gifts, and we are called to use them for his glory. Christ is ascended to be our mediator. We now have confidence in him. We have confidence that we can be used for his glory. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Let's pray. Father, we praise you for sending your son. To take on flesh. to be tempted in every way to live perfectly for us so that he represents us now to you. We thank you, Jesus, for your obedience, your obedience even to the death on a cross where you died for our sins and you now are risen and ascend to the right hand of the Father. We come praying in your name. Move us. Change us. Convict us. Lord, convert anyone now, give them new life who does not know you. Send your spirit down to make us a people. To help us or to live out that call to be your holy nation, to be your royal priesthood, to praise you with our lives and the good gifts you give us in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.