{"id":409852,"date":"2010-03-10T00:22:44","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T05:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gordonmoyes.com\/2010\/03\/10\/all-the-names-of-jesus-study-8-high-priest\/"},"modified":"2010-03-10T00:22:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T05:22:44","slug":"all-the-names-of-jesus-study-8-high-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/409852","title":{"rendered":"ALL THE NAMES OF JESUS – Study 8. High Priest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Book of Hebrews calls Jesus our High Priest and so strikes a keynote in that remarkable book (Heb. 2:17, 3<\/a>:1, 4:14 – 15, 5:5, 10, 6:20, 7:26-28, 8:1, 9:11, 10:21). This is the major reference to Christ’s high priestly function in the Bible.<\/p>\n

It is surprising the Old Testament writers never thought of the coming Messiah in terms of being a High Priest. In Jewish life the temple and the work of the High Priest were so important that one might expect the coming Messiah to be a new High Priest making up for the deficiencies of the Jewish priesthood. Only in the books of the Apocryphal period was the suggestion made. This came about because the heroic Maccabees, who resisted the Romans so strongly, were both Kings and High Priests of Israel. However, the Maccabees were wiped out about 63 B.C.<\/p>\n

The author of Hebrews caught up the theme that Jesus is our kingly High Priest. He was the only satisfactory High Priest, as all others were sinful men making atonement for sinful men. Jesus was the only sinless one who Himself was both the High Priest and the sacrifice. Jesus was called a faithful and merciful High Priest.<\/p>\n

By His faith He delivers us from the fear of death. This fear was closely associated with the worshippers approach to God (Num. 18:3-5<\/a>). Boldly Jesus came before God, removing the fear, and allowing us with confidence now to approach God (Heb.4:16).<\/p>\n

In His mercy Jesus demonstrates His compassion. The High Priest was not expected to be compassionate. There is no such concept in the Old Testament. Actually the priesthood was known for their hardness (Hos.4:4-9). In the New Testament time the Sadducees were notoriously hard and cruel but Jesus was compassionate.<\/p>\n

Jesus was appointed by God a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 4:14-5<\/a>:10; Gen. 14:17-20<\/a>; Ps 110:4<\/a>). His name meant “King of Righteousness, King of Peace”. Jesus aptly suited this title. Because Melchizedek had no recorded parental background – the very opposite of the normal Priest who was proud of his descent from Aaron – he was a High Priest in his own right. Jesus, from the tribe of Judah was of this type. Furthermore, as nothing is said of Melchizedek’s birth or death he was regarded as timeless. The high priesthood of Jesus was similarly eternal. The other indicates that the high priesthood of Jesus was a unique and superior office for the benefit of all mankind who have faith (Heb.7).<\/p>\n

FOR TODAY<\/span><\/p>\n

For many years I received a helpful brochure entitled “Bridge-builder”. The words bridge and bridge-builder are not found in the New Testament (no reason for bridges!), but the concept is. The Roman Catholic Church calls the Pope, the Pontiff. This word means Chief Priest and by epistemology this means “bridge-builder”. The Pontiff was seen as a bridge-builder between man and God. The New Testament teaching is that there is only one bridge-builder, Jesus, who in His high priestly function reconciles man to God. The “Bridge-builder” publication seeks to bridge the gap between Churches, their members and God. Jesus is the only bridge-builder, yet after Him we are supporting His ministry. This is a vital ministry in an age when alienation marks off man from man and man from God.<\/p>\n

Rev The Hon Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Book of Hebrews calls Jesus our High Priest and so strikes a keynote in that remarkable book (Heb. 2:17, 3:1, 4:14 – 15, 5:5, 10, 6:20, 7:26-28, 8:1, 9:11, 10:21). This is the major reference to Christ’s high priestly function in the Bible. It is surprising the Old Testament writers never thought of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}