Hebrews 7:28a
"For the law (the Mosaic Law, remember what we shared about teaching when you see “the law”) maketh men high priests who have infirmity; (they’re human. They’re going to sin, they’re going to fail and one day they’re going to die and they’re out of the priesthood.) but the word of the oath, which was since the law,…"
In other words, His priesthood kicked in after the work of the Cross, not before. And I mentioned that it’s on this side of the Cross that our salvation is consummated because He had to die. He had to be buried. And He had to arise in resurrection power in order for our salvation to be possible.
Remember the crucifixion and the two men crucified with Him one on each side and then theirs the disciples? One man rebuked Christ and the other asked forgiveness as he saw Him a just man and innocent of any crime just as the Roman rules had. The second man the Lord said to him that that day he'd be with Him in paradise or Abraham's bosom, which according to Christ was a holding place for those who had died from Adam until Christ. To these souls there held, He proclaimed the message of this Salvation, which the youngman executed with Him heard as well, and then it states that He led the captivity captive to the holiest place where they received this so great a Salvation.(Luke 16: 22; Ephesians 4:8-10, Psalm 68:18, Colossians 2:15, 1:18-29) And we could go into John 6 and speak of the bread which Jesus said was His flesh which is true bread or manna from heaven and His blood which is true drink or of the Spirit of Eternal Life. But we'll not do that just here what I want to say is that the disciples like the youngman shortly were faced with so great a Salvation after His return or ascension when they were given the second blessing of promise. The New Covenant, that blessing being the power to be a son of God. Because as Israel had been redeemed through Moses so they as a nation could have received the Salvation offered them, but they refused, at least three times as recorded in Acts. Now this is all said to point to the fact that when we're converted or we have received redemption we're placed by God within a corral [which we've called our first estate] for our training and teaching by the Holy Spirit in the path of righteousness and the development of God's image and likeness being restored and the main one is His Agape Love through which we're more than willing to accept the crisis that is placed before us. This crisis is nothing short of our dieing to all that can be named or called self, the spirit of the world or the prince of the power of the air. Now there is more that can be said but for now we'll return to our study.
Now, a lot of folks have a hard time understanding that I maintain that the Four Gospels cannot have our Gospel of Grace in them because Christ hadn’t died yet. I think some try to come back with "Well, they must have known that He was going to." Oh did they? Turn back with me to Luke 18 and let the Scripture speak for itself, and this isn’t the only place, this is just one of the easier ones to remember.
So if you’re ever appealing to some lost person on some of these things and they come back and say "Oh well, they must have known that He was going to die. They knew that He was going to rise from the dead." No they didn’t. They had no idea. Now granted the Old Testament did; now after the fact, see we can go back into the Old Testament and we can see that it was evident that Christ would die and be resurrected, but His followers didn’t know that. Alright you got it? Luke 18 verse 31. This is toward the end of His earthly ministry. They’ve been with Him now three years and they are on their way back up to Jerusalem for the final days. In fact most don't know that those final days also marked the end to Israel's priesthood and it system of worship not to mention the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. Even though the Lord told them what was about to happen, just like the prophets of old the people that were being addressed did not always understand nor could they see the handwriting on the wall so to speak. And sad to say that many there are in our day and time that can't either.
Luke 18:31
"Then he took unto him the twelve, and he said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished."
Jesus said all these prophecies will be fulfilled and we know they were. And now to see that He knew exactly what was coming, He tells them:
Luke 18:32-33
"For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, (the Romans) and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again."
Now look at verse 34. We should all know these verses but a lot of people out there don’t know this. Look what the Scripture says,
Luke 18:34
"And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken."
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