Monday, February 20, 2012
Hebrews 4:14 ... we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens.
RECOGNIZE JESUS AS THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST
It might be hard for people to fathom why Christians would go to the trouble of maintaining and heating a building, and just use it a few hours a week. In the Old Testament, the Lord went one better. He had a room in the temple that was used only one day a year. The rest of the year nobody could even look at it.
The Most Holy Place was separated from the rest of the temple by a thick curtain. Only on one day a year could somebody enter it. That was the Day of Atonement. And on that day only the High Priest could enter it. He could only enter it with the blood of a lamb. That Day of Atonement was the Israelites highest festival day because that was the day when the high priest would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, and thus atone for the sins of the people. The Lord made two things clear in this ceremony: 1) Blood had to pay for sin; 2) It would have to be a high priest not the people who could approach Him with that blood.
The letter to the Hebrews goes into great detail about the Old Testament high priest was a shadow of the real High Priest, Jesus. We are told in Hebrews 4:14, "We have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens." As the true High Priest Jesus did not go into the temple to the Most Holy Place, He went to the real Most Holy Place, heaven itself. He went not with the blood of a lamb, but with His own holy, precious blood.
