Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Reflection: Hebrews 10:13-16 below summarize the message of Hebrews quite nicely. The annual sacrifice the priests made in the temple could never make us holy. But Jesus came to make the once and for all sacrifice for our sins. And now he sits at the right hand of God. When he comes back he will put his enemies under his feet. We say this when we recite the Creed every week in the worship service. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and He will come back to judge the living and the dead. Then, the writer quotes Ezekiel 36, the book we are in also in our daily texts, and says that God through the power of the Holy Spirit is now writing the Law on our hearts. That which was external has now become internal. The righteousness of Christ that was once external to us that we could never achieve on our own, has now been imputed to us by faith in Jesus. Then he says something very important, "By the one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." ...

Reflection: Today we begin the book of Ezekiel, the prophet whose extraordinary call and the vision he received are explained in exquisite detail in Ezekiel 1. Then we see the nature of his call to be sent to the Israelites, a stubborn and obstinate people, a whether they listen or fail to listen he is to deliver the message The Lord will give him. Then, in Hebrews 9 and 10, we see a summary of the teaching on why Jesus' sacrifice is superior to the blood of goats and bulls. It is superior for a couple of reasons. One, it is the Son of God himself offering His own body for the sins of all of us. Two, it is the once and for all sacrifice that all the Old Testament sacrifices were a mere shadow of. The Law could not effect ant real change in the Israelites it could only convict them of their need for a Savior. What is the connection?? As the prayer for today says quite nicely we have all been exiled because of our sin, but God who is gracious and compassionate (Psalm 111) has de...

Reflection: Here we have again the mystical character Melchizedek, the priest-king from Salem. As Psalm 110 points out, this priest will also extend God's rule and scepter and crush their enemies under his feet. Then in Hebrews, we see that Jesus is the high priest, who is the mediator of a new covenant that surpasses the old covenant. In the Old Covenant the priest would have to sprinkle the blood of goats and lambs over everything to cleanse it from its sin. This made people ceremonially clean from an external standpoint, but the New Covenant surpasses the old one in that Jesus has entered the holy place and made the once and for all sacrifice as the innocent Son of God. Jesus' blood poured out for us has cleansed us from our sins and made us inheritors of eternal life. The author uses the analogy of a will to say when one dies their heir inherits everything. He says the same thing applies to us who are called to be God's sons and daughters. Just as the son inherits eve...

Reflection: In the Psalm and book of Lamentations, we see a familiar theme in the bible we don't talk about a lot, but the biblical writers spend quite a bit of time addressing. In fact, the whole book of Lamentations is just that, a "lament"! There are also several other "lament" psalms in the Old Testament. Of course, the people of Israel were in a great time of lament when they were overtaken by the foreign superpowers, Assyria and Babylon, and taken off into captivity. The lament psalms, like today's psalm, the writers often call on God to not be silent in a time of distress. And if you have been a Christian for very long, there will be times when we call on God that he seems absent or silent. Notice I used the word "seems". We know God has promised to be with us and we know God does not go back on any of His promises, or else He would not be God. And yet, for reasons unbeknown to us, we feel as if God might not be listening to our pr...

Reflection: Today again the writer of Hebrews reflects on the nature of Jesus who is a priest and king in the order of Melchizedek. As we mentioned yesterday, Jesus descended from David so he came from the royal line, but also qualified to make the perfect sacrifice as the perfect high priest, who entered the holy of holies through his death on the cross. All the sacrifices the priests made in the temple were anticipating the once and for all sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for the atonement of our sins. A good way to remember what the word atonement means is at-one-ment. Though we were separated from God because of our sin, Jesus has reconciled us to God and brought us into a whole relationship. We can have peace with God by trusting in the promise that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for us. This is why it is so important to not divorce the Old Testament from the New Testament, and why they make the whole story of God's salvation. By faith we are children of Abraham, who G...

Reflection: In the book of Hebrews today the author refers to Melchizedek, the Priest and King. Here is what he says about him. 7 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. Melchizedek is a mysterious figure who apparently has no genealogy. Abraham gives him a tenth of his spoils as an indicator he is a higher authority figure than him. Melchizedek was a priest/king which enabled to do two things to rule and to mediate between God a man. As we have said before everything about the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of God's plan of salvation through. Jesus. Christ. In the same way although Je...

Reflection: The writers of Hebrews offers this challenge to the young Jewish Church, Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so. 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace Notice he is admonishing the people of the church to move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity. What might these elementary teachings be? W...