October 20, 2024 

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements 

Call to Worship
We celebrate the victory of your Son, who has overcome death and saved us from the power of sin.
We rejoice in his exaltation!
Our great high priest has gone before, has entered into the Holy of Holies, and has opened up a way for us to follow. 
In his name, we too enter into your eternal presence.
He is our priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
To him be all praise, together with you, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, one Lord, the same in every age.
Let us worship God.
Amen and Amen 

 

Hymn:  350 To God be the glory

 

Prayer of Adoration 

Most Holy God,  you have come among us in your Son, Jesus Christ.  We praise you and thank you that he came as a servant of all and laboured and prayed with us for the release of all who are held hostage to sin and death.
We are grateful that on our behalf he drank the cup of suffering
and was plunged into the baptism of death.  We thank you that his suffering led to you raising him to new life and designated him a high priest forever, making him the source of eternal salvation
for us and all who respond to your gracious call. 

Help us to respond to that call as we bring our confession before you, saying together… 

Prayer of Confession: 

O LORD, my God, you are very great.  Your works are many and varied and in wisdom you have made everything.
Loving God, in our human condition you know who we are, and what we are; you know our awkwardness with ourselves, with each other, and with you.
Help our unbelief; give us the boldness, by the presence of your Spirit, to believe in your possibilities for us, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

Take up your cross and follow Jesus the Messiah, who suffered and died that we might share in his resurrection life and have no shame when he comes again in the glory of his Father. Amen.
 

Passing the Peace
The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 

Hymn:  358 There is a redeemer

 

Scripture:

Isaiah 53:  4-12  
Psalm 91: 1-8 
Hebrews 5: 1-10  

 

Sermon:  The Sacrifice of the High Priest 

The priest who is called to be the Holy High Priest, is the one whose calling it is to suffer and to die for the people.   

Over the years the people of God were ones who recognized the importance of sacrifice on behalf of their sins.  They brought the sacrifice to the Temple, be it a turtle dove, a lamb or a calf.  There the priest blessed them and sacrificed them to make atonement for the sins of the people.   

There was also the scape-goat, who was brought, blessed and then released into the wilderness, carrying with it the sins of the people.  

In every instance, these rituals of sacrifice took the sins of the people away.  The only problem was that this ritual needed to be repeated over and over again.   

Over time the prophets started to speak about the Messiah and how he would carry the sins of the people and make an atonement for the people for ever.  Once for all. 

Many of those prophets brought the message of the Messiah, as they spoke of the freedom of Israel.  Freedom from kings who were despots,  from the oppression of occupation, freedom from exile, … Because they were so outspoken, they were often the target of those who oppressed them.  They were attacked, arrested, beaten and often killed because of the message they spoke.  They were martyred in an attempt to seek the freedom of the people.  Some of the commentators said that in that martyrdom they served as an example of what the Messiah would ultimately accomplish as he suffered and died for the ultimate freedom of all.   

So what is the difference between a priest or a high priest?  

What was the difference between a prophet who was also a priest and died for the freedom of the people in a current situation? 

That whole history of the priesthood is complicated as some of the duties of the calling overlapped.   

The commentator A.  Peeler has made a chart that attempted to explain some of the differences as well as the similarities.   

 

Priests	Jesus as High Priest
Human	Human
Priestly Vocation: Represent humans to God	Priestly Vocation: Cause of eternal salvation of all people
Offer gifts and sacrifices for sins	Offers prayers and supplications
Emotive state: ability to Control anger because they understood sin	Emotive state: Great cries and tears as he expressed his grief for their sins
Beset with weakness	He was heard because of reverence Suffered, Obedient, Perfected
Offers for people; first had to make offering for himself	People follow him, and he had the power to forgive sins
Didn’t take honor for himself	Appointed by God as High Priest
Called by God	Called by God

 

That begins to show the difference between a priest and a high priest, but not in totality.   

Yes, Jesus lived a perfect life of obedience, and he had the power to forgive sins as a part of his calling from God.  That power extended to all generations by his suffering, death, and resurrection.  Never again will sacrificial offerings for sin be required.  

  

Yet Jesus could not be considered a priest because he came from the tribe of Judah.  This is the tribe from whom kings arose.   

So why a priest and not a king?   

Or better yet, why a king and a priest? 

 

The clue to the answer of those questions comes from an account in Genesis 14, where the priest, Melchizedek, came to speak with Abraham.   

8 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, 

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
    Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And praise be to God Most High,
    who delivered your enemies into your hand.”  Gen 14 NIV 

Then Abram gave him a 10th of the wealth he had garnered.   

The precedent for Jesus being a priest is found in this exchange.  The priest of the Most High, the one who came from God.  A priest of God most high before Levi had even been born; a priest most high even before the covenant with Abram that changed his name to Abraham.   

 

A priest like Melchizedek was a priest forever. 

The author of Hebrews refers to Jesus as following in his footsteps.  Pointing out that Jesus was a High Priest who was called by God, saying,  

5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, 

“You are my Son;
    today I have become your Father.”[a] 

6 And he says in another place, 

“You are a priest forever,
    in the order of Melchizedek.”  Hebrews 5  NIV 

We see here that Jesus was a “Holy High Priest”  human like other priests, and yet more.   

 

Remember the list…  

other priests were unable to live a sin free life and had to make a sacrifice for themselves first, then for the people.   

But Jesus lived an obedient life and didn’t have to make a sacrifice first, and he didn’t have to make a sacrifice at all—he was the sacrifice. 

That is such a huge, huge difference.   

He was like the scapegoat who took the sins of the people into the suffering in the wilderness.  He was like the lamb or the dove who bore the sins of the people as the priest sacrificed its life.   He was that and more than that.  He was the sacrifice. 

 

He was like the prophets who died for their words on behalf of God and whose deaths attempted to buy the freedom of the people.  And he was more than that. 

 

The forgiveness that the sacrifice of Jesus bought was for all people, for all time.   

That is the point of a suffering High Priest.  He was the one who came from God, to live a human life and to suffer and die for all humans. 

The suffering servant took the beatings,  

the humiliation,  

the imprisonment  

and the death of the sacrifice.   

He bore that death for 3 days.  Then he rose from death and declared forgiveness and eternal life for all.   

A priest, a sacrifice and a king—one complete package for all eternity. 

Amen. 

 

Hymn:  356 You Lord, are both lamb and shepherd

   

Offering and Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer
God, we bless you for your creative generosity that fills our lives with all that we need.  Because you have blessed us we have these gifts to share; accept and use the offerings of our hearts and our hands in the service of others, to the glory and honour of your name. Amen. 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession 

God of all Creation,  you created this world and all that grows and dwells in it.  You fill the world and us with your goodness.  We thank you for the gift of grace that allows us to know you and to serve you.   

Through all of our lives you have loved us, you are our God and we rejoice to be your people.  We need Your guidance now to know how to pray for the good of all of society. 

WE BRING YOU OUR JOY 

For Jesus, your love and our salvation 

 

 

 

 

WE BRING YOU OUR CONCERNS 

Bill starting Chemo 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE PRAY FOR YOUR HURTING WORLD 

Ukraine/Russia
Israel/Middle East 

Those suffering from the latest atmospheric river 

 

 

 

 

 

We pray for the government elected in BC yesterday.  Guide all the members, both govt and opposition that they may lead according to your will.  Fill them with your Spirit’s wisdom, patience and compassion.   

Send Your Holy Spirit to enter the hearts of those in the world who have the power to make a difference in the world.  Where that person is us, fill our hearts with the overwhelming desire to be a servant of your people and your world.   

Work in us to restore a world where peace and love abound and all live in fellowship with one another. 

All this we ask in the name of Your son, Jesus, who came to bring Light to the world.  We pray in his name, saying together,  Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

 

Hymn:  376 Lord the light of your love is shining

Benediction 

Go now with the words of your high priest in your ears:
“You are a forgiven people.”
Strive not to be served, but to serve, as Jesus did, and like Jesus  pray, with cries and tears, for the salvation of all. 

And may God be present to you in times of trial;
May Christ Jesus pray for you and give you strength;
and may the Holy Spirit fill you with hope and humility. 

Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord, 

 
Blessing Song:  Go now in peace

Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
Public Domain 

3 Fold Amen