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East Ridge SDA Church

Steven Grabiner

Incarnation

Incarnation: The Reality

Incarnation: The Revealing

Incarnation: The Reunion

Incarnation: The Regeneration


My title this morning is Incarnation, the Reunion. And most of you know that for my work, I travel occasionally. Actually, I travel a lot. And there are times when you go to some place, and someone's supposed to pick you up at the air, you come to a different country, and you go to the airport, and someone's supposed to pick you up and then they're not there. It happened on my recent trip to Cuba, it's happened different times.

And so my rule is walk out of, where you have to get your luggage, walk out and stop and just stay there. And so sometimes, you know, it's 05:10 minutes, whatever it is. Sometimes it's longer, and so then I sit on my luggage or I find a place to sit, and in those odd occasions where an hour or 2 or 3 has passed where I've been waiting for somebody, I start watching. You watch people. And of course at that juncture, it's a great place to watch people because there's people streaming out, either coming back home or coming on vacation.

And then there are those people meeting them. And sometimes there's balloons and sometimes there's flowers and sometimes there's really, you know, excited extrovert signs and occasionally singing, happiness, occasionally tears, but watching reunions is an interesting event at an airport, because people are really happy to be reunited. So what's our reunion going to be like? And do we have the same kind of anticipation and hunger for being reunited with our Creator as He has for being reunited with us. All heaven is kind of standing outside the luggage counter waiting for us to arrive.

And when that happens, it's going to be an amazing reunion. Over the past couple of weeks, again, as I said, we've looked at the Incarnation, and we started by looking at the risk, how real the risk was, that all heaven was imperiled in the Incarnation. That although from our point of view it looks like how could this have failed from a heavenly perspective There was a real risk. It was not a given that Jesus would succeed in the incarnation and of course what that means for us. We will be studying throughout eternity Then the week after that we looked at the idea of the incarnation and how it reveals God to us.

Great heart of the incarnation is showing us God's great desire which is to be with us throughout eternity. And how can God bring that to pass? And then last week we looked at the reality of the incarnation and what that means for Jesus in his humanity in terms of temptations. And that he was tempted, that he did in reality unite our offending nature with his sinless nature. We looked at these different aspects and again this morning, I want to look at the reunion.

So If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Hebrews 10, and verse 19, Hebrews 10, starting in verse 19. And I'm gonna be reading from the New American Standard. For those of you that have the King James, it'll read slightly differently, but again, in verse 19, therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, I believe the King James says, having confidence, and then skipping down a little bit into verse 21, and since We have a great high priest, or again the King James, and we have our high priest, or having a great high priest, over the house of God. Then in verse 22, there is a call to us. So in verse 19, there's a statement, because we have this, or since we have this, or having this.

Well, what is it that we have, back in verse 19? Confidence, or boldness, assurance to do something, to enter into the holy place, to enter into God's presence by the blood of Jesus. Just as the song was sung earlier, you know, being washed as white as snow. But we should really, in our Christian experience, have confidence. Is the confidence founded in us?

No, the confidence is external. Having confidence because of the blood of Jesus, we can enter into the presence of God. Then skipping verse 20 for a moment, then into verse 21. And since we have something else here, and what's that? We have a great high priest.

We have someone that's living and interceding for us. Many months ago we talked about 2 truths that Satan hates more than any others. And those 2 truths that come out in scripture are an Atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful mediator. And Satan knows that everything depends on taking your attention and mine away from those 2 truths. We have the blood of Jesus, the atoning sacrifice, and we have an all-powerful mediator.

That's what Paul is bringing out here. Since we have an atoning sacrifice, since your sins have been washed away through the blood of Christ, have boldness, have assurance, have confidence to come into the presence of God. We need not be timid about this. Of course, there is a natural timidity because we see ourselves, but where are we looking? We are looking in the wrong place.

Having confidence because of the blood of Jesus. And also because we have this great high priest over the house of God. Then verse 22, what should we do? Draw near. And this theme runs all the way through the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 16.

You know, we're told to draw near to the throne of grace. Hebrews 7.25, we have a high priest who's able to save completely those who draw near unto God. Hebrews 10 in verse 1, it tells us that the blood of sacrifices aren't going to change those who draw near, but the blood of Christ will change those who draw near. So the question of course is are we? Are we drawing near?

Are we hesitant? Do we step back? Do we think we're unworthy? Well we are unworthy, get over it. But We have something else.

We have the blood of Jesus Christ and we have an all-powerful mediator. Therefore, draw near to God. That really should be our decision for this year, amen? You know, lots of different resolutions. Main 1 should be, yeah, I need to be responding to the Holy Spirit and drawing closer to Him, drawing near to God.

But let's look a little bit more detail at the verse we passed over, verse 20, Hebrews 10 in verse 20. We can enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, verse 20, by a new and living way, which he, I think the King James says, consecrated for us. The New American Standard here says, which he inaugurated for us. This new and living way which he brought, excuse me, which he inaugurated for us Through the veil, that is his flesh. Now what's Paul saying here?

Well, it's interesting, the word new is, really could be translated fresh or relevant or exciting. You know, I have this new way, It's always fresh that we are able to come to God. And that new way Christ has consecrated, inaugurated for us, he says here, through his veil, that is his flesh, his humanity. Well, what's Paul talking about? Let me give you an illustration, if I can.

Some of you have seen this before. This is a schematic diagram of the Old Testament sanctuary. And so here's the outer court. And there's the main courtyard around it, which would have been a very tall white wall made of white linen. And there would be a veil there.

Priests will come in. Of course, there's the place of burnt offering, the atoning sacrifice, first thing you would see. And then in the second part of the sanctuary was what we would call the tabernacle proper. And it was divided into 2 sections. We have the first, we often call it the holy place.

And then the second room called the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy. And it's important for us to just keep in mind that the 2 centers of that sanctuary are the sacrifice and the place of intercession, an atoning sacrifice, and an all-powerful mediator. That is what you and I need to depend on. But there's a veil here and there was a veil there. And it's very interesting, these veils were made of thick material.

They had to be replaced occasionally. They were woven and there were different colors woven into these veils. And for example, there was blue, and there were purple, and there was red, and there was white from linen, all these different colors in there. And ancient Jewish thought indicated that the colors in the veil represented this world, this part of creation. And that when the high priest moved from here and into here and then ultimately into here, they were moving from the realms of this world into a heavenly realm.

That's kind of what Paul's telling us, that we can, by faith, because of the blood of Jesus, because of his intercession, we can come into the presence of God. So notice this quotation. This is from a Jewish writer by the name of Josephus, who wrote a history. And He said this, the third part thereof, that's that most holy place, to which the priests were not admitted, except for the high priest once a year, is as it were, what? A heaven peculiar or unique to God.

So in ancient Jewish thought, the most holy place, really the whole sanctuary, but here he's focusing on the most holy, was a symbol of heaven. And you entered that symbol of heaven by going through the veil, which was a symbol of the things of this world. Notice this next quotation that Josephus says in a different book. He said that the scarlet thread represented fire, the blue was the air, the purple was the sea, that is water, and the White linen represented the earth. Now why would that be significant?

Fire, air, water, and earth. Why would he, Josephus, point that out? Anybody have an idea? Fire, water, air. That was the elements that the Greeks believed created all matter or comprised all matter.

So Josephus is kind of trying to take this Jewish thought that the veil represents creation matter and he's connecting it to Greek thought and he says, see, this makes perfect sense. Of course, there was 1 other color in the veil. What was it? It was gold. And gold is a symbol of divinity.

And so it was very common in Jewish thought to think that this veil represented divinity mixed with humanity. And here Paul's kind of telling us that this new way, this way that you and I can approach to God that Christ has consecrated through the veil, that is, what does it say in the text? Through his flesh. And again, this is kind of an interesting thought. This is an ancient picture of an angel, or Angel Gabriel, coming to Mary, announcing that she's going to give birth to the child Christ.

And there was a book written in around the third century that described the angel coming to Mary. And in the book it describes Mary weaving a new veil for the temple. Now totally with no historical evidence of this, it's entirely possible that she was asked to do this before Joseph met her because young maidens were chosen to make new veils. It's a possibility, but it's certainly not a biblical fact. But what's really interesting to me in this picture, and you probably can't see it, so let's zoom in a little bit, in her hand is scarlet thread that she's using to weave this veil.

Now the point simply is this, that it was very common in early Christianity to think of the veil of the temple as a symbol, in early Judaism at least, and later Christianity, to think of the veil as a symbol representing a combination of the earthly sphere, humanity plus divinity. And Paul, that's what Paul's hinting at here in Romans chapter 10. And he's telling us that we can have access to come into the presence of God, not because of who we are, not because of our worth, but because of the blood of Christ and because we have an atoning priest. And that that priest clothed himself with our humanity. Turn with me to Hebrews to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 1.

Revelation chapter 1 in verse 13. So the connection between the veil and the incarnation was suggested in early Christianity through that picture and through that early Christian writing. But the important truth for us is that we have a high priest who clothed his divinity with humanity. But then when he ascended to heaven, what did he take with him? He took with him our humanity.

Revelation chapter 1 starting in verse 12 and 13. Let's just read 12 and 13. John hears a voice and he turns to see it and he sees 7 golden lamb stands in verse 12. In verse 13 it says, and in the middle of the lamb stands I saw 1 like, like what? What's the description?

Son of man. And then he goes on and he describes Christ as a high priest and he's got a head of hair of white like wool and faces shining like the sun. But John's first description is this is who? The Son of Man, emphasizing his connection with humanity. Jesus has consecrated, inaugurated a way for us into the presence of God, and that presence is through his humanity.

Piercing through the veil that would have kept the heavenly separated from the earthly, Jesus blends the 2 in his humanity. Blending humanity and divinity. And because of that, he calls us to do what? To draw near, to come to the reunion. I was thinking about this, obviously praying about this this week, and last week my wife went on a cleaning binge, and as she did, she was throwing away my books.

Not all of them, but she took 1 particular book off the shelf and she said, you don't want this anymore do you? I looked at it so longingly. It's a book called Endurance And it's a book about Shackleton's experience. And I probably read it a half a dozen times when we were in Africa. But as I was thinking about the book, I began to think about the reunion.

Endurance is a tremendous story of Ernest Shackleton, who tried to cross over Antarctica. Their ship got caught in the ice. Many of you know the story. They were trapped for over a year on the ice. Finally, they make themselves to this desolate island called Elephant Island.

And Shackleton and a few of his men decide we need to go get help. And so they get in this boat that you can see on the screen, and they travel 800, 900 miles through the worst seas in the world. And they make it to a little island called South Georgia Island. He leaves everybody else behind. They land on the wrong side of the island.

They have to climb over these mountains, which even mountaineers today find extremely difficult to climb. They make it over the Him and Shackleton and 2 of his associates, make it down. They come to a whaling village. They haven't seen anybody else except their mates for almost 2 years. They haven't had a bath in probably a year and a half.

You know, they're grungy. But they come back to this town, and as Shackleton comes into the town, what do you think the first thing on his mind is? Food, bath? First thing on his mind is, how can I be reunited with my guys? And so he wrote in a letter, When we got to the whaling station, it was the thought of all those comrades that made us mad with joy.

They go through all these endeavors, tremendous story, they go all through the endeavors, and when they get to the whaling station, their thought is, my friends, I'm alive, I've made it, we can rescue them. We didn't feel, excuse me, we didn't so much feel safe as that they would be saved. That's a tiny, tiny, tiny reflection of the reunion that took place in heaven. When Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, surrounded with all the glory of the angels and all the angels wanting to welcome him, you know, he's back where he came from, back where he belongs, surrounded with the glory that he had with the Father before the world began, before the incarnation. He's back and all the angels begin to press around him.

He is thinking about you and being reunited with you. He's about to be reunited with his Father, but he pushes away, as it were, all the presence of the angels and he has a question for his father and the question is, can I bring my friends with me? And in the book Gospel Workers, a little book written for Bible workers and pastors, it says this, the angels were waiting to welcome Jesus. Eagerly they pressed about him, but he waved them back. His heart was with you, the lonely, sorrowing band of disciples whom he had left upon all of it.

His heart is still with the struggling children on earth who have the battle with the destroyer yet to wage." Then in quoting from John chapter 17 and believe it's verse 26, Father he says, I will that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am. As he's being reunited with his father, he's thinking about you and me. And As we face trials, as we face struggles, as we enter into this year and have all sorts of different issues before us, don't forget that Jesus' heart desire is to be reunited with you. That is what he's longing for. That is what he's praying.

He prayed it here on earth in the incarnation, John 17. He prayed it as soon as he got to his father. And when he comes again, he's going to say the same thing. Father, I want those people in Eastridge to be with me where I am. I want my friends to be with me where I am, to share eternity with us.

What a reunion. The question is, will you and I draw near to him that we might participate in that reunion as well. As Richard said earlier, the communion service is designed to point us to that great event. So we wash 1 another's feet, we're reminded of his humiliation. As we eat the bread and the fruit of the vine, we're reminded of His broken body and His poured-out blood.

We're reminded of His high priestly ministry and the desire of His heart, which is to be with you. AudioVerse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about AudioVerse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org. Dot audioverse dot org

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