“Jesus... because He continues forever, holds His
priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw
near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled,
separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 7:24-26)
It’s been a privilege to make the acquaintance of Charles Kelley. He and his
wife were new faces that suddenly appeared at the Convalescent Home Bible study
I teach on Thursday mornings. He was the one who brought a Bible to the study
and followed along as I taught. Talking with him, I learned that he was
recovering from double knee replacement surgery. After he was discharged he came
back, this time as a Bible teacher. When I would conclude our morning study in
the Book of Romans, he would start an excellent question-and-answer study of his
own, in which he did a good job of drawing responses from elderly listeners who
normally don’t contribute anything at all.
Last week he specifically asked me to stay for his portion of the study and I
was pleased to do so, for Charles is a good teacher. He sadly was saying “goodbye” to our small congregation, for he was now able
to walk to some extent and could return to work. That day was to be his last
scheduled Thursday session, and this time he largely abandoned his usual format,
telling us something about himself.
When he was a student at Compton High School, a senior, the police came to
his classroom, arrested him and took him away. They said that a Charles E. Kelly
had been driving a Buick automobile that hit somebody and killed them. Our
Charles E. Kelley was charged with murder.
His mother, who was desperately trying to help him, found out one very
important thing. The Charles E. Kelly who drove the car weighed 125 pounds. Her
son, Charles E. Kelley, who was in jail at the moment, played football for
Compton High School and weighed 280 pounds. His mother asked the officials, “Does he LOOK like he weighs 125 pounds?” The weight
discrepancy his mother so vigorously pointed out caused to police to look
further which led to a true identification and his subsequent release.
In the Bible study last Thursday, our Charles Kelley continued, “The person who really drove the car was named Charles E. Kelly,
just like me. Not only that, I KNEW the guy. We both have the same middle name,
and our mother’s names are both Dorothy Kell(e)y. We were born in the same Los
Angeles County hospital on the same day. He was in trouble a lot and things like
this happened to me often. It messed up my driving record and I had to have my
middle name legally dropped in order to separate my driving record from the
other Charles.”
He went on by looking at each person in the audience, asking, “Have you ever been wrongfully accused? Have you ever been
misrepresented as to who and what you are?” I noticed there were two or
three nods of agreement from the audience. My head nodded as well. All of us
have been misrepresented in something that was said about us at some point in
our lives. And it has probably happened to us all, more than once, more than we
know.
And then Charles related the wrongful accusation in his own life to the
Person and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. As it says in our Scripture for
today, Jesus is our “high priest, holy, innocent,
undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews
7:26). He is not like us at all – we are not innocent, but He is. Amazingly
Jesus became like us, living and dying and rising again to deliver us from the
false viewpoints, actions and attitudes of this world. Charles pointed out that
even those who purport to honor Jesus with their words often misrepresent who He
is. It is said Jesus is a “teacher,” and He is. He
has been described by the word “prophet” and that
is true also. But to portray the Lord in merely human terms is to misrepresent
Him, for He is much more.
As Charles told us, individual Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists will say they “respect” Jesus, and incredibly there are many individuals
within Christian religions who have a regard for Him, but have no idea who
the Lord Jesus Christ really is.
As we can learn from our Scripture for today, “Jesus…
continues forever, holding His priesthood permanently.” Every human
leader who has ever lived or will live on this earth, whether a “priest” or not, has such an office only for a time.
The meaning of their office is that they are to bring God to the people and
bring the people to God. Jesus has “His priesthood
permanently” (Hebrews 7:24-26). If you telephone a church, mosque,
synagogue or ashram, you might speak to someone today who will tell you helpful
things, but if you call next year, that helpful person may be gone and you will
speak to someone else. Our Lord is not like that, for as the Scripture says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”
(Hebrews 13:8). He is ALWAYS here for us.
One great problem with mankind is that nobody lives forever; on this earth at
least, but Jesus “always lives to make intercession for…”
people like you and me, as we can see in today’s Scripture. If you “draw near to God through” Jesus Christ, He is able and
willing to save you from sin and death - “forever.”
And note what He is “always” doing for you – “He is always making intercession” for you. “Intercession” means He is praying to the Father for you,
by name, right this minute. He knows your REAL need, not the superficial “wants”
we think are important, but the deep needs of the soul that only He can truly
understand. He is the One who knows what is really important and His prayers are
answered.
“It was fitting for us” that He would become our
high priest,” because He is “holy,” clean, “innocent,” just and pure, “undefiled”
by the sins of this world. He is better than religion, higher than Buddha,
Mohammed or anyone else, for all of us are lightweights by comparison. He is “exalted above the heavens” by
God the Father.
At one point, when John the Baptist was in prison, he began to doubt and sent
two of his own disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Coming
One, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered, “Go
and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight
and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are
raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is
not offended because of Me” (Matthew 11:2-6). As Charles Kelley pointed
out, Jesus, when He was here on earth, proved who He is by doing wondrous things. He will “save (you) forever”
when you trust in Him.
Lord Jesus, You are the Innocent One, sent to save the guilty from
destruction. Please forgive my sins. I trust in You now. Thank You for saving
me. In Jesus Name. Amen.
