Ephesians; 1:4 – Election of church age believer, part 38. The elected priest.

Title: Ephesians; 1:4 – Election of church age believer, part 38. The elected priest.

Communion:

Heb 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;

The Christ had to be a man in order to be our high priest, but He is much better than Aaron, since He is both offered and the sacrifice.

Heb 5:2 he can deal gently [have compassion – similar word to “sympathy” in 4:15] with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness;

Heb 5:3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.

The high priest in Israel was surrounded by sin. All the animal butchering he performed was for sin. The people offering the animals were telling him their sins, which were symbolically transferred to the animal whose blood was spilled for sin. It would be easy for a righteous high priest to become exasperated and indignant at the sins of the people, which he was hearing about far more often than anyone else in Israel.

It was required therefore that the high priest be compassionate. The word “gently” in vs. 2 is almost the same word for our Lord’s “sympathy” in 4:15, and it means to be moderate and temperate in judgment toward another’s errors. It is a feeling toward the error of others that is neither too severe or too tolerant. The high priest must be careful that he doesn’t become too irritated at the sin and ignorance of the ones he serves.

Now, Aaron and his sons were all sinners, “beset with weakness.” Yet the word means “to be encompassed.” Although Jesus was not a sinner, He was tempted or encompassed by all manner of sin. He knows that we are weak and He is compassionate towards our weaknesses. He is not overly tolerant, for that would only lead us into more sin. He is not overly severe, for that too would lead us into more sin. He is perfectly compassionate and sympathetic that we may be released from the power and control of sin through His atonement and His current help.

To this He was appointed.

Heb 5:4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

I doubt that anyone in his right mind would want the job. Sure, there were some who wanted the position of high priest for the power and prestige that the post could hold, but that was a perversion of the office and not the real purpose. The high priest was basically a butcher of innocent animals for the sins, ignorance, and stupidity of the people, whom he served in this capacity, encompassed by sin, day in and day out.

We find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane entreating God to let the cup pass from Him, yet He says, Luk 22:40 "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."

He was not forced. He made it abundantly clear that He was willing. Yet, He had to lay aside His own present joy in order to endure the cross, so that we could be free.

Heb 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

"Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee";

Heb 5:6 just as He says also in another passage,

"Thou art a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek."

Heb 5:7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

Heb 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Heb 5:9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

Heb 5:10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Luk 22:14 And when the hour had come He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.

Luk 22:15 And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;

Luk 22:16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. "

Luk 22:17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves;

Luk 22:18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. "

Luk 22:19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

Luk 22:20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

Message:

We are currently looking at passages in the NT concerning the election of the church age believer.

So far, we have covered:

3) Passages where election is applied to believers in this age:

3a. The elect are to reveal the emptiness of human desire for life without God, 1Co 1:27-29.

1Co 1:26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

1Co 1:27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,

1Co 1:28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are,

1Co 1:29 that no man should boast before God.

1Co 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

1Co 1:31 that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

This does not mean that we are children in our thinking or fools. The elect are innocent in the ways of the world and wise in the ways of the Lord.

Rom 16:19 For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil.

Rom 16:20 And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

1Co 14:20 Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature.

Eph 1:16 [I] do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;

Eph 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Eph 5:17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Col 1:9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Col 1:10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Col 1:11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously

Col 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Col 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Phi 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

Phi 2:15 that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

Phi 2:16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

3b. Worldly status has no bearing on this position and the elect realize that they are poor in worldly good and rich towards God, Jam 2:5.

Jam 2:1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

Jam 2:2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,

Jam 2:3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,"

Jam 2:4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

Jam 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

3c. Our election freely gives us all things. God will always be for us and His love will never separate from us, Rom 8:31-39.

Rom 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Rom 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Rom 8:33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;

Rom 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Rom 8:36 Just as it is written,

"For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long;

We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

Rom 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Rom 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

Rom 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.