Hi how are you all today? I am good and have just returned from a relaxing holiday at the beach. The drive there was over 6 hours one way but it was worth it. How was your week?
This week I want to look at the verse in Hebrews 4: 14-16 in the Message Bible which states:
14-16 Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.
Jesus, in these verses, is referred to as our great high priest. We know what the priests did in the Old Testament-
- They sacrificed the peoples offering on the altar
- They were in charge of the temple and had to carry it to move it
- The high priest could only go into the Holy of Holies once a year to atone for the people’s sins- those ones where they never realised they’d sinned.
Jesus, in these verses, is referred to as the great high priest. On the cross He sacrificed Himself once and for all so that our sins were wiped out. But we need to accept the sacrifice for it to take effect in our lives.
Some people say- Jesus is the Son of God – He doesn’t know what I have been through or even He wouldn’t understand. These verses tell us a different story.
There are three things that Jesus understands. They are:
The first is our weaknesses- we live in a fallen world so therefore there are things around us that can affect us. That word weakness in the Greek means- without strength, feebleness, sickness, frailty, or incapacity.
Jesus understands we go through all these things because He also lived on this earth. Sickness didn’t affect Him but He certainly felt tired and weary at times. If you think Jesus doesn’t understand He does- He spent His earthly life helping people in just these situations.
Acts 10: 37-38 in the Message Bible states:
37-38 “You know the story of what happened in Judea. It began in Galilee after John preached a total life-change. Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.
Jesus helped people and healed people and He will do the same for you.
The second thing Jesus understands is the testing we go through. Some tests are easy and some are hard but Jesus understands and is with us.
Jesus was tested Himself. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He was tempted by Satan. Jesus passed those tests but it didn’t mean the end of the testing. Jesus was buffeted all through His ministry on earth until Satan thought he had the final word when Jesus was crucified. But that was not the end of the story- Jesus defeated Satan and gave us the authority, once we believe in Jesus, so that we can endure temptation and win.
The last one is sin. Even though the verse states that Jesus didn’t sin whilst He was on earth, at the cross, every sin ever was put on Him to endure. Everything that you and I have ever done wrong, thought wrong or neglected to do was put on Jesus. Jesus knows the crushing weight that sin has on our lives. We were never created to sin or carry the weight of it. That is why it is burdensome to carry. The only way to release that burden is acknowledge what Jesus did for you , repent of it by saying sorry and turning away from it, then forgiveness is yours for the taking. Forgiveness must be received fully by us for us to truly walk in freedom.
Does Jesus understand? Yes He does. That was the point of Him coming to earth. He needed to endure in order to sympathise with us. There was no other way available.
This week thank Jesus for what He did for you. It was the greatest gift anyone could ever give you.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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