Dear Friends and Family of DRPC,
What an interesting summer it has been! If your summer has been like the Di Iulio Family summer, it has been filled with joyful surprises, unexpected difficulties, discouraging challenges, delightful blessings, helpful growth, marvelous memories, frustrating confusion, and most of all steadfast grace from the Lord. Is there anything more we could add to the list? It seems this summer was quite all-inclusive.
One of the joys of this summer has been our Summer Study book - Name Above All Names. You will remember at the beginning of the summer I sent out a brief reflection on the first chapter. Now that we are at the end of the summer I’d like to reflect on a couple of the high points of the book that have been especially helpful to me.
Chapter 3 of Name Above All Names looks at Jesus as the Great High Priest. Page 58 begins a list of encouraging realities that are presented in the book of Hebrews, which is devoted to showing how Jesus is our High Priest. The author of Hebrews mentions at least 6 truths that belong to those in Christ:
1. We have a Great High Priest – Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our High Priest. What did the High Priest do for God’s chosen people? He stood in the presence of God to make intercession for the people of God. Have you really thought through what it means that Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Only Begotten of the Father, is the High Priest who is interceding for you?
2. We have a real salvation – This world offers many different salvations, doesn’t it? There is a salvation offered through personal sacrifice via physical or financial philanthropy. There is a salvation offered through wealth accumulation. There is a salvation offered through sexual expression and gratification of sexual desire. These are all false hopes. There is nothing real about the salvation these offer. In Jesus Christ there is real and true salvation in the knowledge that the God of all things has chosen to make peace with his people.
3. We have a perfect High Priest – Christ’s salvation is real because he is perfect. He has perfectly obeyed God’s Law, perfectly fulfilled all of the obligations given to him, and he became the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of mankind. This perfect High Priest stands in contrast to the imperfect high priests who formerly served the people of Israel. They were but men. Jesus is both God and man, perfect in his entire being.
4. We have a better High Priest – Where the former high priests pointed forward, Jesus is the Great High Priest to whom they were pointing. As I have mentioned before, I used to collect baseball cards. It is one thing to see the picture and name of someone printed on a small piece of poster card. It is another thing entirely to meet that player in person. So it is with the former priests. They were the identity cards that pointed to the real and better thing!
5. We have a final sacrifice – This one should make all of us leap for joy and shout in delight! We have no more need to make sacrifices or bear the punishment ourselves. Jesus has done it! The marvelous work of High Priest Jesus is that he is both High Priest and Perfect Sacrifice even as he is both God and man. The work that Jesus has done is final and sufficient.
6. We have a better sanctuary – Just as the high priest of the Old Testament pointed to the Great High Priest Jesus, so the sanctuaries of the Tabernacle and Temple point to the ultimate sanctuary that is given to God’s people in the heavenly Jerusalem. Jerusalem was central to the life of the nation of Israel for two reasons. Residing there was both divinity and royalty. The Temple was in Jerusalem and there God met with his people. The palace was also in Jerusalem and there God reigned over his people through the king. In the New Jerusalem, Jesus Christ will be with his people and they with him as he rules and reigns and we rule and reign with him. This is a far better sanctuary!
There is much more that could be said about Jesus as the Great High Priest, but there is one other high point of the book that I want to mention and this letter is already long.
In what could almost be seen as a contrast of Christ’s names, but is better described as a filling out of the description of his character, is the name of Jesus as the Suffering Servant, which is discussed in chapter 6. On pages 139-142 we are reminded of two things that Christ had that we would do well to model in our own lives – a humble approach and compassion.
These two qualities marked the life of Jesus all through his ministry on earth and continue to describe his character. Isn’t it a convicting thing to think that the God of the universe condescended to come to earth as a child and live among us, taking on human flesh and humbling himself even to the point of death? Have you thought through what this requires of us? If our God so interacted with others, should not we also clothe ourselves with these attributes?
It is easy to live in pride and look at others without considering what difficulties and challenges might be theirs. After all, this is our default outlook on life and what is even encouraged in today’s culture. It’s all about Number 1 – ME! This posture is reflected in our thoughts, our words, and our actions as we interact with those around us. “After all, I am God’s great gift to those around me” is often our thought. Thankfully, this is not true. Yes, we are gifts to those around us (or at least we should be), but we are not God’s Great Gift. That title belongs to Jesus Christ.
John Lennon encouraged us to imagine a world of his own creation that throws off any sense of obligation to a higher authority, a heaven or religion. What is most sad is that the desire of his heart could only be met in finding peace with God. I would suggest we imagine something else that is something not of our own making, but something of God’s making – a Kingdom where God reigns in perfect justice and love and his people live with humility and compassion.
Imagine how your life would change if you walked in humility with everyone around you. Imagine how your verbal responses to others would change if your words were clothed in humility. Imagine how your thought life would change if your thoughts were birthed from a heart and mind that recognizes its own weakness and its need of a Savior. Imagine how your relationships would be transformed if your first thought was not for yourself, but one of deep compassion for others. Imagine looking out at others as Jesus did and having compassion on them instead of wondering how it is that others are so ignorant, naïve, dull, and rude. Imagine not having to live up to the pressure that we often put on ourselves that we have to be the one with the best ideas, the most correct opinion, the highest level of achievement, and the most respected reputation.
In other words, imagine if the Gospel of Jesus Christ touched on every part of you.
It is a marvelous thing to think of who Jesus Christ is and the names that are his. Much of the practical application of Name Above All Names can be found in Philippians 2:5-11, the foundation verse of our Summer Study:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
May we be faithful to this command, to have this mind among us as a church as we pursue the Seed of the Woman, the True Prophet, our Great High Priest, our Conquering King, the Son of Man, the Suffering Servant, the Lamb on the Throne, Jesus Christ.
Humbled to serve you,
Pastor Andrew