Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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You can remain stanny if you're able. As we turn to the letter to
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the EPHESIANS and the New Testament,
one of Paul's letters going to be preaching
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on verse two, but I'll read
this evening from one through fourteen. We're
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going to spend a lot of time
in this passage. I would encourage you
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to be pushing your brain to memorize
even just bits and pieces if you can.
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Let's hide God's word in our hearts. Paul, an apostle of Christ
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Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus
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and are faithful in Christ Jesus,
grace to you and peace from God,
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our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and father of
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our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing
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in the heavenly places, even as
he chose us in him before the foundation
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of the world, that we should
be wholly blameless before him. In love,
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he predestined us for adoption as sons
through Jesus Christ, according to the
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purpose of his will, to the
praise of his glorious grace with which he
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has blessed us in the beloved.
In Him we have redemption through his blood,
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the forgiveness of our trestpasses according to
the riches of His grace which he
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lavished upon us, and all wisdom
and insight, making known to us the
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mystery of his will, according to
his purpose, which he set forth in
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Christ as a plan the fullness of
time to unite all things in him,
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things in heaven and things on earth. In Him, we have obtained an
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inheritance, having been predestined according to
the purpose of him who works all things
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according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were the
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first to hope in Christ, might
be to the praise of his glory.
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In Him, you also, when
you heard the word of truth, the
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Gospel of your salvation and believed in
him, were sealed with the promised Holy
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Spirit, who is the guarantee of
our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,
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to the praise of his glory.
Amen, you may be seated.
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So I want to answer or just
a very simple question tonight. What is
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a blessing and, in particular,
what happens? What are we doing in
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our worship services when, at the
beginning and the ends of the service,
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I or whoever happens to be leading
us in worship, raises our hands and
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pronounces this blessing. In formal liturgical
terms, if you would like to learn
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those, the first one is sometimes
called the salutation. The second one,
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or the last one, is sometimes
called the Benediction, but in some ways
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these words are interchangeable and they're all
a benediction, their blessings. What are
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those? Why do we do that? What's actually going on there? That's
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sort of the question I want to
answer tonight, and we're thinking about this
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in light of this passage that we
have in effusions one verse two, kind
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of starting with the practical application and
then sort of working backwards in a way.
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Efphesians one verse two says Grace To
you and peace from God, our
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father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You've heard me say this. I've used
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this particular Benediction, salutation, God's
greeting. I've used it in closings and
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there are other similar ones throughout the
New Testament. What's going on here?
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Why do we why do we do
this? One answer to this question is
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that we are following a new testament
pattern. That should be somewhat obvious.
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That's from what I've said so far. We're following what we see particularly in
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these letters. Not all of them
do this, but many, many of
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them do. Grace and peace to
you. And even if you just right
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now flip over to some other letters, like the next one in Philippians,
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grace to you and peace from God
our father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
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or if you go to Colossians,
grace to you and peace from God our
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father, the variation reminds us that
something it's not something magical that's happening here.
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There's not some strict form of words
that has to be followed in order
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for a blessing to be had.
Something else is going on. One thing
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that's going on is that the new
testament writers are modifying a common greeting that
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would have been used at that time. If you turn over to acts Chapter
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Fifteen, you'll see this greeting in
acts Chapter Fifteen, verse twenty three.
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You remember that after the Council of
the Apostles in the elders met, they
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made a decision and then they sent
a letter out to the churches. And
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here's how it began. The brothers, both the apostles and the elders to
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the brothers who are in who are
of the gentiles in Antioch and Syria and
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Cilicia. Greetings that were greetings.
That's a very common way in which the
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letters of this era began. Greetings. You see it also in acts,
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Chapter Twenty three, Acts Twenty three, verse twenty six, Claudius Lysius to
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His Excellency the Governor Felix, greetings
right to you from me. Greetings.
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If you want to look at one
more, we won't do this now,
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but you also see it in Jameson
one. So there's nothing wrong with this.
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We see this council using it,
with James Uses it. Outsiders outside
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of the church use it. There's
nothing wrong with saying greetings or, as
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we might today, hello or hi, in our emails. But in some
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of our letters, and many of
the letters, the apostle, Paul in
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particular, changes it slightly and he
says and he does something else. He
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takes this word greetings, and it's
sounds similar in Greek too, and he
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takes this word and he changes it
to the word grace, grace to you,
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and then he adds and peace from
God, our father and the Lord
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Jesus Christ, or various very variations
on that. Why is that happening?
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What's going on there? What he's
doing is he's taking this common Greek way
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of opening up a letter and he's
modifying it in this Hebrew way, this
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Hebrew way of blessing. Beyond just
sort of needing some way to open his
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letter or are more positively greeting people
or even well wishing people, he pronounces
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blessings on the people that he's writing
to. In other words, it's really
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strong language. You would probably sense
this as well if you were to write
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an email, for example, and
instead of writing hi mom, you wrote
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grace and peace to you, mother, and the name of our Lord and
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Savior, Jesus Christ write. It
has a lot more weight to it.
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Why? Because it's a weighty thing
and it's borrowing a language that we see
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a throughout the Old Testament, language
of blessing. So we have to go
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not just from the New Testament pattern
but yet another step back into the Old
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Testament and see what's going on there. The first blessing that we have is
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in genesis chapter one. After God
creates the heavens and the earth and blesses
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them and fills them. We read
he read that he he calls it very
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good. And then in verse twenty
two, it says in God blessed them,
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saying be fruitful and multiply, fill
the waters in the seas and let
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birds multiply on the earth. So
what's God doing here? He had made
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the world very good and now he
blessed it. He conveyed his favor for
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upon it, to the increase of
a good thing. So he recognized a
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state that they were already in,
one of goodness. He had made the
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world good, but then, by
blessing them, he pronounced this thing,
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by he pronounced a blessing which would
which would convey this further goodnessing. I'm
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not sure what the best way to
put that is. And now remarkable thing
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about God is that when he says
things, they happen. You may remember
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the other part of Genesis one,
and God said let there be light,
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and there was light. Let the
darkness and light be separated, and it
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happened. God speaks these things and
they happen. It's not the same for
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us. Right we can give blessings
and curses and they will be totally ineffectual
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unless they are grounded in the will
of God. Gets back to some of
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our discussion about prayer this morning.
But this is what God does. He
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blesses them, he blesses the creatures
and things of this world. Another significant
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and important passage is numbers, chapter
six. I'll turn there and read to
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you God's command here. So in
numbers six, chapter or verses Twenty Two
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through twenty seven, we read this. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying
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speak to Aaron and his sons,
saying thus you shall bless the people of
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Israel. All right, so you
see what it? The the the set
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up here there or the setting is
going on. The Lord speaks to Moses.
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He says go talk to Aaron,
who is the high priest, and
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he says you and your priestly sons
need to do something. I'm commanding you
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to do something, and the thing
I'm commanding you to do is blessed the
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people of Israel. You shall say
to them, the Lord bless you and
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keep you, the Lord make his
face to shine upon you and be gracious
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to you. The Lord lift up
his countenance upon you and give you peace.
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So shall they put my name upon
the people of Israel and I will
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bless them. Not Remarkable. So
God tells his priests to pronounce this blessing
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on his people and he will bless
them in that just as he brought about
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blessing, just as he brought about
goodness and creation in the beginning of the
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world, as he is creating this
nation, this family, this people,
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he is going to bless them.
They shall put my name upon the people
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of Israel and I will bless them. These beautiful words. Perhaps you've heard
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them before. This is the this
is the context for them. Now when,
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if we go over to Leviticus,
Leviticus chapter nine, we have another
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set of important verses and like to
read you. We read that Aaron lifted
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up his hands toward the people and
blessed them and he came down from offering
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the sin offering and the burnt offering
and the peace offerings, and Moses and
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Aaron went into the tent of meeting
and when they came out, they blessed
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the people of God and the glory
of the Lord appeared to all the people.
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So you see here them actually now
fulfilling this command that God has given.
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And what happens? The glory of
the Lord appeared to all the people.
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I will put my name on them, my presence will be with them,
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they will be my people, I
will be their God. The Lord
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bless you and keep you, or
Yah Way Jehovah, bless you and keep
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you. He uses his name,
his name that he gives Moses, that
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the burning Bush. When Moses says
what's WHO Shall I say? Send Me.
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So this is what's going on in
the Old Testament. Blessing, as
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it comes from the Lord, is
a way in which he conveys goodness to
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his people, conveys blessing to his
people, even comes to them himself.
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Because, after all, where is
our greatest enjoyment? Where is our most
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wonderful peace, whereas our highest happiness? It's in God himself. I won't
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read it to you, but these
patterns of raising the hands and blessing that
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are also seen, for example,
in Psalm sixty three four or psalm one
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hundred thirty four, verse two.
What I want to do now is jump
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back into the New Testament and sort
of start where we began, but this
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time in Luke, Luke Chapter Twenty
Four, Luke Chapter Twenty four versus fifty
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through fifty one. This is after
Jesus Death, after his resurrection and just
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before his ascension we read in twenty
four, verse fifty and fifty one.
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Then Jesus led them out as far
as Bethany and, lifting up his hands,
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he blessed them. While he blessed
them, he parted from them and
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was carried up into heaven, and
they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with
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great joy and were continually in the
temple blessing God. An amazing thing.
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Excuse me. Jesus here, acting
as this high priest, the mediator of
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a new and better covenant, which
will read about in just a moment,
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he raises up his hands and he
blesses his people as he parts from them.
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When the Lord leaves us, he
doesn't flip us a corner and say
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good luck. He conveys his blessing
on us. He promises to be with
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us. And you know what happens
soon after this, according to the historian
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Luke, the Holy Spirit of God
is poured out on the people. He
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blesses them and everything that he had
been promising and reminding them and teaching them
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he brings into fulfillment. One more
passage now from Hebrews, Hebrews Chapter Seven
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and eight. You really should read
both of these chapters. I'm going to
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read just a few verses. First, Hebrew seven, verse eleven and now,
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if perfection had been attainable through the
levitical priesthood, for under it the
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people received the law, what further
need would there have been for another piece
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priest to rise after the order of
Melchizedek rather than one named after the order
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of Aaron? Now there's some complicated
things going on here and, like I
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said, you really should read the
chapter. But this the main point I
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want you to see here, which
I think you can see here, is
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what the author is saying. If
we look at the way things are,
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you're forced to ask this question,
if perfection had been obtainable this way,
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why did this thing happen? You'll
have to go back and see what all
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this is referred to, but that's
it what he's saying. He's saying,
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if perfection had been attainable through the
priesthood, why did this other historical thing
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happen, namely this Melchizedek who blesss
Aaron? Now he describes whom melkised it
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was and that whole scenario. But
his final argument is that Jesus comes to
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us not in the order of Aaron, but in the order of Melchizedek.
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Verse Twenty Two. The conclusion of
this is this makes Jesus the guaranteur of
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a better covenant. The former priests
were many in number because they were prevented
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by death from continuing in office.
It couldn't keep continuing in office, they
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couldn't maintain the priesthood. Why?
Because they kept dying, one after another,
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generation after another generation they kept dying. But he holds his priesthood permanently
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because he continues forever. Consequently,
he is able to save to the uttermost.
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The perfection that was unattainable in the
older priesthood is attainable in Christ Jesus,
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who is able to save to the
uttermost those who draw near to God
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through him. So Jesus comes as
this new high priest. The commands that
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God gave to Aaron and to his
sons are now fulfilled in Jesus perfectly.
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Finally, whatever blessing was conveyed to
God's people in Israel is now comes into
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its final form, it's ultimate shape. He is the guarantor of a new
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and better covenant. Verse Twenty Six
says, for it was indeed fitting that
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we should have such a high priest, wholly innocent, unstained, separated from
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sinners and exalted above the heavens.
He has no need, like those high
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priests, to offer sacrifices daily,
first for his own sins and then for
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those of the people. That's what
Moses and Aaron were doing. Remember,
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they went and they offered the sin
offering and the burnt offering and all of
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that. Since he did this,
that is, made a sacrifice, offered
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a sacrifice once and for all,
when he offered up himself. For the
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law appoints men in their weakness as
high priests, but the word of the
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oath, which came later than the
law, appoints a son who has been
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made perfect forever. Amazing things.
Well, that gets us back, then,
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to Paul's letter. Here in Ephesians
and and in other places as well,
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Paul's not just saying hi, guys, it's nice to see you.
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I have a few things I want
to say. He's speaking, as he
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says, as an apostle of this
high priest. He's speaking as one who
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has been sent out by Jesus,
as he says, Paul, and Apostle
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of Christ Jesus, by the will
of God, as his emissary to declare
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his word. Just as God spoke
to Moses and spoke to Aaron and his
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sons and said I want you to
do this and bless my people. Paul
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is blessing the people, or rather
God is blessing his people, through the
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pronouncement of this benediction. This to
the saints who are in Ephesis and our
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faithful in Christ, Jesus, grace
to you and peace from Paul, know
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from God, our father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as Paul
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just sort of bowing hot air here, just saying nice religious, spiritual things,
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or does he speak with authority in
such a way that God actually brings
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these things about? It's the latter. For one, that's what he says.
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He says he comes as an apostle
by the will of God. And
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second, look at the things that
he says after this. Does he go
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on to talk about how Paul's building
is social media platform to get more and
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more likes and followers? Know Paul
is talking about Jesus, not himself.
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How were they blessed? Verse Three. Let's just read on. Blessed be
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the God and father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
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Christ with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places. Did He really do that?
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Did Jesus really bless us in the
heavenly places? Sure he did,
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and he still does. As we
read in Hebrews, he continues to intercede
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for us. As we read in
Luke, he raised his hands and blessed
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his people as he ascended up into
the heavenly places. He chose us in
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him, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holly and
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blameless before him. And I'm not
going to read it all again. But
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what does Paul do? He goes
on and on and on, just pouring
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out blessing after blessing after blessing,
as he says the later that he lavished
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upon us and all wisdom and insight
in him, in him, in him,
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in him, all throughout this passage. So Paul is a minister of
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Christ. At the beginning and ends
of many of his letters, is speaking
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on behalf of the Lord and Proclaiming
The Gospel that he has been called and
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sent to proclaim on the basis of
that commission that the Lord, Jesus Christ
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gave him and all of us to
go there for into the world and make
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disciples, spread this news, spread
the Gospel, bring blessing to the people.
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And that's what's happening when I stand
as a minister in Christ's name before
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you and pronounce these or similar blessings. There's no inherent power in me.
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My authority comes, as Paus did, from the word of God, from
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the call and the Commission of Christ
to bring this Pronouncement Grace and peace in
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Christ Jesus, into the world and
particularly on those people whom he has predestined
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and love for all of these wonderful
things. The gifts that we have in
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Christ are not because of a formula
or because of some virtue in the minister
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they aught. We have them because
of Jesus, and that flows out through
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the rest of this letter and it
flows out through the rest of our lives,
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marked over and over and over again
by grace and peace, God bestowing
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on us constantly, every day,
every moment, every hour, favor that
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we don't deserve, grace and bringing
us into and a state of salvation.
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We're sin and misery are gone,
but instead we rest as those who are
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chosen and below loved by him.
And you know, it's not just me.
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I have received a particular calling in
my life by God, even through
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you, and being called to be
a minister of this church, to proclaim
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Christ's word in his name. But
all of us have this calling as Christians
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to bless others. First, Peter
Three Nine, do not repay evil for
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evil or reviling for reviling, but, on the contrary, bless for to
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this you were called, that you
may obtain a blessing. Paul says a
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similar thing in Romans chapter twelve.
This is who we are as Christians,
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and that's why Paul begins the letter
his letters in these ways. We are
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people who have been blessed by God, richly, wonderfully filled and every way
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by His grace and peace. We've
been blessed by him and we respond to
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that by blessing others. Let's go
to the Lord in prayer and ask that
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he would continue to bless us,
that he would give us the things that
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he promises in the Gospel of Christ
and that he would help us to turn
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in love and do the same for
others. Let's pray
