Because of Who He Is

Because He is the Savior,

We will look to Him and Him alone for our salvation. 

Because He is the Prophet,

We will listen to His word, and His word alone as given through the Scriptures.

Because He is the High Priest,

We will accept what He has done before God on our behalf, and draw near to God through Him.

Because He is the King,

We will obey Him and serve Him only, and to Him alone pledge our allegiance.

Because He is the Shepherd,

We will trust Him for His care and His provision.

The Holiness of Christ

but so that the world may know I love the Father,

I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.

John 14:31

The holiness of Christ was not a legalistic holiness,

based on duty, but a loving holiness birthed out of 

His love for the Father.  In this He kept the greatest

commandment, which was to love God with all His

heart, all His soul, and all His mind (Matthew 22:37).  

After all, He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it

 (Matthew 5:17), and the fulfillment of the Law begins with 

keeping its foremost commandment. 

Like Christ, our devotion to God should be birthed out

of our love for Him.  Love is always superior to legalism.

Preaching on the Incarnation

In preaching on the incarnation, which many of us preach on during the Christmas season, it is too easy to emphasize the fact that Christ was fully God, and ignore the fact that Christ was fully man as well.  Many times we as preachers tend to dwell on the fact of His deity, and never mention His humanity, which was just as great a necessity for Him as our Savior as was His deity. He had to be both human and Divine.

In the incarnation, in the person of Christ, we have the mystery of the fullness of deity in bodily form, the Word becoming flesh and being made in the likeness of men, Christ being fully God and fully man, two natures sharing one body in full harmony and unity.  So, in the Scriptures, when Christ speaks He does not speak as God sometimes and man at others.  When Christ acts, He does not act as God sometimes and man at others.  He speaks and acts as both God and man simultaneously.  His two natures are never divorced from one another and never act independently of one another.  So whatever He does…all that He did, He did as both God and man.  

So in our preaching on the incarnation, let us remember and endeavor to present Him in the fullness of His being, as being, living, existing, speaking, thinking, and acting as both God and man.  This is why He is the pivot point of all of history, and why, truly, there is no one like Him.

Christ, Our Perfection and Perfecter

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with

our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things

as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things

to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the 

same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year,

make perfect those who draw near...For by one offering

He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Hebrews 10:1, 14

and in Him you have been made complete...

Colossians 2:10a

He was perfect so we could be perfected.

The Greatest Injustice

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin

on our behalf, so that we might become

the righteousness of God in Him.

II Corinthians 5:21

The greatest injustice ever wrought would be Christ   

being punished for the sins of all those who would 

never come to Him.  Indeed, this would be the 

 most cruel and unusual punishment imaginable; 

 as it would be punishment in vain.  

Christ, Our Great High Priest

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood,

He Himself likewise also partook of the same...

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren 

in all things, so that He might become a merciful

and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God...

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who

has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God...

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize

with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted 

in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 2:14, 17; 4:14-15

The beauty of Jesus Christ being our high priest before God, is that He came down and took our flesh upon Himself, and in so doing was tempted in every way, just as we are tempted.  From that perspective He operates as our intercessor before God because He can fully identify and sympathize with the yearnings and temptations of the flesh.  Now, of course, He did not succumb to the temptations, but He was tempted none the less.  So when He intercedes with God for us, when He pleads our cause before God, He does so from a position of familiarity and understanding of just what it is like to be in a body of flesh.  He intercedes with insight gained from living amongst us, and sharing our human condition.

Yes, He is our Savior, but once He becomes our Savior, He then assumes the role of our Advocate before God (I John 2:1), and what a role that is.  We know from Scripture that Satan is our adversary, and part of what he does as our adversary is accuse us (Christians) night and day before God (Revelation 12:10), and he certainly has enough ammunition to use against us as none of us is without sin (Ecclesiates 7:20, I John 1:8-10, James 1:21, 3:2, Romans 7:17-21); but for every accusation we have an Advocate (I John 2:1) who intercedes vigorously for us based on His death for our sin, His paying the penalty for that sin, His blood being shed for that sin; and that His death is the propitiation (satisfaction of the holy wrath and satisfaction of the justice of God) against that sin (Jeremiah 50:34, Micah 7:9).  His sacrifice and its accompanying propitiation is not just an adequate defense, but is an overwhelming defense, an impenetrable defense against all the accusations of the enemy.  

As our high priest, Christ knows and cares.  As our high priest, Christ is capable and qualified. As our high priest, Christ is indefeatable.  So don't let the guilt of your sin keep you from coming to God; and once you have come to Him, don't let the accusations and incrimination of the enemy weigh you down because Christ has vigorously pleaded your case and defended you, and therefore there is no longer any condemnation from God upon you (Romans 8:1).  

Praise be to God for His wondrous salvation and all of its benefits to men.

Preaching Jesus

We must not underpreach Christ,

but we can never overpreach Him.

Al Mohler

Expositor's Conference

2011

The Value of Christ

Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,
who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:45-46

Jesus, the One thing worth everything!

Our Focus for Daily Living

Is Christ the focus of your faith, not just

 for salvation, but for daily living as well.?

Understanding the Cross

"We cannot get a glimmering of an understanding

of what the New Testament understands by

Christ's atoning work unless we see that God

is hostile to every evil thing and every evil person."

Leon Morris

The Atonement

Its Meaning and Significance

Page 138

True Lovers of Christ

True lovers of Christ

can stand the pain of self-denial.

Art Azurdia

Casting a Vision? It Must Be Christ!

 Romans 8:29

For those he foreknew, He also predestined

to become conformed to the image of His Son...

Colossians 1:28

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man

and teaching every man with all wisdom,

so that we may present every man

complete in Christ.

Philippians 1:6

For I am confident of this very thing,

that He who began a good work in you

will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Our destiny, if you will, is that we have been foreordained and appointed to be like Christ. This is God's plan for all of those that He has called and drawn unto Himself. It is the ultimate outcome of our salvation. I John 3:2 tells us that when He appears and we see Him, we shall be just like Him. How this happens is explained in I Corinthians 15:20-57. God is going to make us like His Son, and that process started the minute, no the second, we were saved. What a marvelous gift from God!

But there is a process to go through. for even though we are changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, we still have to go through that sanctifying process in this world during our lifetime. This is where the role of the pastor-teacher comes in. This is what Paul was referring to in  Colossians 1:28 above. He understood his role in preparing people for eternity, by preparing people to be presented complete in Christ. This is also a function of the church in concert as the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teacher fulfill their ministries in equipping the church to do the work of service that builds up the body of Christ to a mature man, to the fullness of the stature of Christ.

God's vision for us from eternity past is for us is to be like His Son, the first born of many brethren.  So as pastors and teachers should that not be our vision as well. Are we casting a compelling vision of Christ before our people so they will aspire to be like Him? Do we present an all encompassing picture of Christ to our people as our ultimate example of what God expects us to be? Do we model Christ in our own lives? Is Christ our example to the extent that we are an example of Him to our people? Do they understand that this is where God is taking them through the sanctification process, and the ultimate to their question, "Why?"

This vision of Christ that we present to our people is to be all encompassing, affecting every area of our lives, so that, in becoming complete in Christ, what is true about Him becomes true about us.

Thought for the Day

The death of Christ in our stead is the basis of His intercession for us. He intercedes for us on the merits of His sinless life, His sacrificial and substitutionary death, and the propitiation provided by His blood.

Romans 8:34
Hebrews 2:17
Hebrews 7:25
Hebrews 9:11-12,26
I John 4:10