Jesus Our High Priest

Jesus: Our High Priest (Mark 16:1-7; Heb. 7:23-28; 9:11-14) Jesus now and forever serves as: The promised Perfect Believer’s High Priest In Heaven In the presence of the Father, at His right hand (Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; 7:55; Rom.8:34, Eph. 1:20, Heb. 10:12; 12:2; 1 Pe. 3:22) Holy Innocent Undefiled (Acts 13:37) Separated from Sinners (Though a friend to sinners) Exalted above the heavens (above the angels) Messiah The Sacrifice, once for all Savior Cleanser of the heart not just the body Intercessor (Rom. 8:34), intercede, to intervene parties with a view to reconciling differences. One generally only intercedes upon request (i.e. we need to pray) Who will roll away the stone? Why? (Matt. 28:2) As Max Lucado wrote, "The stone was moved - not for Jesus - but for the women. Not so Jesus could come out, but so the women could see in." Stones in the Bible often represent hard burdens/stumbling blocks, and the greater the stone the greater the burden. But such burdens, which may be too difficult for one or all or us to overcome, God can and will remove for us. By sending us the Christ, and raising Him from the dead, God removed such a burden, the barrier between God and sinful man (Rom. 4:25) Micah 2:13, “One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.” Who raised Him up? “He has been resurrected!” Egeiro Gk. (Verb in passive, means acted upon) Roused/Awoken (like his frightened disciples awoke him during the storm at sea in Luke 8:24) Raised up (like David was raised up to be King (Acts 13:22) and like the man who had been lame in Acts 3:6-7)

Recalled (like Mary and Joseph from Egypt in Matt. 2:13) to life lifted out of the pit (like the sheep in Matt. 12:11) He was genuinely “asleep in death” God resurrected Him from the dead (John 5:21; Acts 2:24; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30; Gal. 1:1; Heb. 11:19; 1 Pe. 1:21) Believing this is critical to our salvation (Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 15:14; Col. 2:12) The Spirit of that same God can raise us up into a new life (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:14) He is risen, as He said (Matt. 28:6) Jesus predicted his resurrection (Matt. 12:40, 16:21, 17:9 & 23, 20:19, 26:32, 27:63, Mark 8:31) All 4 Gospels affirm the fact of Jesus resurrection. He appeared to over 500 people (1 Cor. 15:3-6) According to the book of Acts, the resurrection was the dominant theme of the preaching of Peter, Stephen and Paul. (Acts 4:33) He will never die again (Rom. 6:9) Angel appearance, announcements, commands Fear Not (Matt. 28:5, Gen. 26:24, 46:3, Deut. 1:21, 20:3, 31:6-8, Joshua 1:9, 8:1, 10:25, 11:6, 2 Kings 1:15, 2 Chron. 20:15, 2 Chron 32:7, Judges 6:23, Isa. 35:4, 41:13-14, Jer. 1:8, 42:11, Ezek. 2:6, Ps. 23:1-6, 27:1-3, Matt. 14:27, Matt. 17:7, Luke 12:4, John 6:20, Acts 18:9, 27:24, 1 Pe. 3:14) New Testament word for “fear”, phobas, Gk. which means to panic and take flight. To fear not therefore means to stand fast and not “cut and run”. God is in ultimate control (Matt. 10:24-30) Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4, John 16:33, 2 Tim. 1:7, James 4:7, Rom. 8:31) How does fear affect us, our decisions and our actions? Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable-and, most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life, while faith rejoices in its God.

Fear or anxiety chokes out the word of God (Matt. 13:22) Tell the disciples. (Matt. 28:7 & 10, Mark 16:7) Why specifically the disciples? To comfort, reassure, encourage them.