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BACKGROUND
DEFINITION OF TERMS
MELCHIZEDEK
MELCHIZEDEK
PRIEST
PRIESTS AND LEVITES
I. The biblical data
II. Wellhausen’s reconstruction
III. Some reactions to Wellhausen’s reconstruction
IV. Priesthood in the New Testament
The
full background to this teaching is available online at this link
DEFINITIONS - For serious students
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Online links to scriptures (New International Version [NIV] unless otherwise stated) are shown in blue
| THE PRIESTHOOD TODAY concluded |
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| THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS |
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 The book of 1 Peter deals with this reality and should be regular, compulsory reading for all believers! We are individually to come to Jesus as a holy priesthood.
1 Peter 2:4-8
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 This fact that there is only one mediator, one priest between God and mankind, is confirmed by Timothy.
1 Timothy 2:5-6
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 It is worth repeating the scriptures from Hebrews that tell us that human priests have always been weak, but that we now have an eternal, holy, blameless priest who is exalted above the heavens! Hallelujah! That is the priest I want and need!
Hebrews 7:23-8
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We have seen earlier that we are all sons of God, members of His family along with Jesus.
Galatians 3:26
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 There is no difference between believers, there are no classes of believers, and there is no priesthood other than the priesthood of Jesus. In Christ we are all one
Galatians 3:28-29
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 You may think that you are not good enough to come to God through Jesus yourself, but this is not the case. For when we believe, we are forgiven of all our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Hebrews 12:22-24
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 As Isaiah prophesied, we are clothed in a robe of righteousness that enables us to approach the very throne of God, even though we aren’t yet perfect in the natural.
Isaiah 61:10a
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Jesus alone is God and we have received fullness in belonging to Him.
Colossians 2:9
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 We must not let any intermediary come between ourselves and Jesus.
How is your relationship with Jesus today?
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| THE RETURN OF JESUS TO REIGN AND RULE |
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 Of course, the culmination of God’s work through Jesus, is for Jesus to rule and reign on the earth for 1000 years, with His priests, the martyrs, both physical and spiritual, as part of the first resurrection. Again, no intermediaries here!
Revelation 20:1-6
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 Then we have the second resurrection, after which Jesus will reign forever.
Revelation 22:1-6
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 Every true disciple of Jesus looks forward to His return. For we all wish to see the glorious consummation of the priesthood of Jesus.
Revelation 22:7-17
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 In the meantime we need to prepare ourselves for His return.
Come Jesus, come.
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| <i>NEXT WEEK: </i>THINKING GREEK OR HEBREW |
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 One of the major causes of the church not truly walking in the ways of Jesus is that we don't truly understand what the ways of Jesus were, and are!
How can you say that, David? Surely we have learned theologians to research and teach, pastors who diligently study and preach the Word, day after day, week after week, year after year. We can have knowledge coming out of our ears from spending time hearing, reading or watching the gospel being expounded in so many different ways.
Yet we continue to miss the point, to misinterpret, to misunderstand, what the walk with Jesus is truly all about. How terrible. How sad. For me, and for you.
How do our misunderstandings arise then?
It is because we come from a Greek rather than a Jewish mindset. And the two are poles apart. In reality, for 2000 years now we have assumed Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Peter, Paul and all, thought in the same way, but with different conclusions, to the many famous Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato, those who are responsible for the thought processes underpinning our educational system, and Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, to name but a very few. The Old Testament was translated into Greek in the 3rd century before Jesus, while the New Testament was written in Greek. Unfortunately, much of the intrinsic meaning and understanding of the Jewish culture in which Jesus lived and ministered, was lost in the Greek translation, in the way of thinking of those of us in a Greek thought pattern, dominated world.
Put simply, if we start out on the wrong road, we are most likely to arrive at the wrong destination.
Over the centuries, some people have had truths revealed through revelation from the Holy Spirit, but generally, these ones have been rejected by the established church, which has preferred to continue in intellectual, religious ways, leading to division and even hatred between believers through different, man-made, interpretations of Scripture. "Jesus still weeps!"
In more recent times however, in particular since the re-establishment of the State of Israel, a greater understanding of historical Jewish ways is starting to emerge, being available to those with a desire to seek out truths that have been lost or ignored for the past 2 millennia of the Christian church.
Here, we will look at some of these cultural differences and see how they impact our understanding of what Jesus really was all about. It should be life changing!
We need to learn to understand and think in an Eastern (Hebrew), rather than in our traditional and typical Greek (Western), way. The Gospels, being about the life of Jesus, are written from an Eastern, Jewish perspective while the writings, particularly of Paul, have much more of a Western perspective, as he was writing to a primarily European audience of Gentiles.
Let us begin……
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| A NOTE FROM DAVID |
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 The 'new priesthood' we have created today is so insidious that we often don't recognise it. From the outrageousness of the tele evangelist who asks you to send in your prayer requests (along with a 'gift') to be prayed over by him or her to the well meaning pastor in the local church who is truly wanting to help, but in the wrong way.
As leaders, we need to be encouraging and training people to communicate, and build a relationship, with God for themselves.
May the Lord forgive us for usurping His priesthood that He established at the ultimate cost, death on the cross.
BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY
Ancient Hittite Ruins
These ancient Hittite ruins date back to Biblical times. The stone lions guarded the gateway of the ancient Hittite capital city of Hattusha which is located in modern Turkey. The Hittite ruins are important in the study of Biblical archaeology, they reveal that the Hittites of the Bible really existed and were important in ancient times.
2 Kings 7:6 "For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, [even] the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us."
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So until next week.......
MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOU BLESS GOD!
His servant and yours
Learn more about us at...
www.wwj.org.nz/about.php
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A DAVID'S DOODLING
God has shown me that...
... in Him, to die is to live.
David Tait
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Check
out the WWJ website for….
More David's Doodlings: www.wwj.org.nz/dd.php
Laughing at Ourselves: http://www.wwj.org.nz/laugh.php
A look at some of lifes curious questions: http://www.wwj.org.nz/why.php
Everything you ever wanted to know about....: http://www.wwj.org.nz/exex.php
Life's a Laugh: http://www.wwj.org.nz/lifelaugh.php
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This is summed up in verse 9. 
Jesus is king over all.