This Week’s Thoughts

If the book of Hebrews could be summarised into a short, catchy slogan, it might be this: Jesus is better. The author has explained by this point that this Jesus — fully God and fully man, apostle and high priest — is greater than the angels, greater than the promised land, greater than the priests of the priesthood of Levi and greater than the old covenant’s sacrifices. He is better than all this and more, worthy of praise, the hope of the Old Testament saints and the ‘author and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12.2).

So what are we to do about it?

Back when I was taking driving lessons, there came a point when to make any meaningful progress, I had to bid farewell to the friendly, quiet side roads and come onto the horrible, busy main roads, where any slip up meant instant calamity, multi-car pileups and drawn out, agonising death (it felt as though it did anyway). I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t a very good driver, and I’m still not, as I didn’t pass the test. Nevertheless, I am reminded of a piece of advice I was given several times: look where you want to go, and the car will follow. If your eyes are locked onto the colossal articulated lorry bearing down towards you at untold speeds, you will find yourself becoming its latest grill ornament. But if your sights are on the empty space ahead of you in your own lane, you will pass it by as if it were never there.

Similarly does the writer of Hebrews exhort us to ‘fix our eyes on Jesus’ (Hebrews 12.2) so that ‘no-one misses the grace of God’ (Hebrews 12.15). On the great motorway of life, I can well imagine him playing the role of instructor, teaching from the Holy Spirit’s highway code. ‘[S]ee that no-one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau’ he says, motioning for us to switch lanes to pass a very dirty van. ‘See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks,’ he adds when the divine satnav tells of what is ahead. We are doing well, keeping a good speed in the correct lane, when he encourages us to ‘[k]eep on loving each other as brothers’ (Hebrews 13.1), but when he notices our gaze (and consequently, our car’s direction) is going to the flashy sports car driving fast the wrong way, he is quick to tell us to ‘[k]eep your eyes free from the love of money and be content with what you have’ (Hebrews 13.5). And when, up ahead, someone has put up fake diversion signs, telling us that they know the real way to travel, he warns us ‘[d]o not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings’ (Hebrews 13.9).

The reason for instructing us this way is because of how great our destination is. Jesus is better! So much better than the fleeting pleasures of sin that last only for a short time (Hebrews 11.25), so much better than Mount Sinai (Hebrews 12.18-24), so much better than all the things this book has outlined, and so very worth any discipline that comes our way (Hebrews 12.5-11).

But again I’ll be honest: I am just as bad a Christian as I am a driver — worse even. I know how wonderful my Lord is, but my eyes are often where they should not be, and I veer about shamefully. Praise God then that He has not left me behind the wheel on my own.

‘Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’ (Hebrews 13.20-21)

The very same God that I am running the race towards, driving towards, or whatever metaphor you want to use, is with me and us now, equipping us to do just that. And He is better.

The post Hebrews – An Encouragement to Stay Faithful to Jesus, Part 2 first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

Hebrews 11 teaches that faith is ‘the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things that are not seen.’ Faith believes what God has revealed and trusts what God has promised. Faith listens to God, walks with God, fears God, obeys God, and gains from God. And that’s not all! Faith submits to God, worships God, hopes in God, depends on God, and commits to God.

Biblical figures of faith aren’t thin on the ground. This leads Hebrews to ask rather breathlessly: ‘What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets’ (11:32). Yet while some faithful conquered, ‘others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free’ (11:35). Does this shock you? Well, even more surprisingly, the Hall of Faith chapter doesn’t end on a high. Instead it says ‘all these, though commended through this faith, did not receive what was promised’ (11:39).

Really? How could these faithful not win what was promised? Well, while Abraham and Moses did not receive what was promised, they did gain wonderful gifts from God. They knew what it was to be forgiven in the same way we do. (No small thing!) While we look back to Jesus’ work on the cross, the ancients gazed ahead to what God would accomplish. And wasn’t this pursuit the whole point of the Old Testament?

Once Jesus paid the price for sin, all these saints joined God in heaven. For Asaph says: ‘You will guide me with Your counsel and afterward receive me to glory’ (Ps. 73:24). So what part of God’s promise did they not receive? Hebrews 11:40 tells us. ‘God had something better in mind for us, that they (Old Testament saints) would not be made perfect apart from us.’ You see, God had a better plan: for their faith and ours to merge. If this is hard to grasp, just focus on two important words: ‘Something better.’

‘Something better’is not a contrast between Old and New Testament blessings, for Hebrews talks of being ‘made perfect,’ which does happen in this life. No, the contrast is our fallen world and the perfect world to come. The ancients looked forward to being made perfect, and we still have the same hope. God planned ‘something better’for Jesus than the cross and the grave. Likewise, He planned ‘something better’for believers: earthbound faith leading to heavenly perfection.

Old Testament saints went ahead of us. Now they eagerly wait for us to finish the race, as apart from us they cannot be made perfect. While ‘to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’ (2 Cor. 5:8), they wait patiently for Christ to bring the rest of His people home. For God’s family to be regathered into one. Only then will they – and us – enter perfect communion and win resurrection bodies. Only then will we all enter the best ‘something better.’

How does this effect us? Well, the Hebrew heroes ran their race and we must now run ours. ‘Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,and the sin which so easily ensnares us.And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us’ (Heb. 12:1). How do we run with endurance? By ‘looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith’ (12:2).

Faith looks to Jesus. Hence He said: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Abraham looked to Jesus just like Moses did, seeing ‘the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt’ (Heb. 11:26). When we believe as they believed, we endure as they endured. We look to Christ, the author and perfecter of faith. He formed and founded faith in us. He laid hold and put His Spirit in us. He opened our eyes to truth, brought our faith into being, and He will bring our faith to completion.

If faith unites us to Christ, then what is His becomes ours. He is the vine and we are the branches. Because He lives, we live also. He endured the cross, and that endurance is ours. He ‘has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb. 12:2) and, one day soon, we will be there with Him. As Christ Himself said: “They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29). Hallelujah! Come Lord Jesus!

The post Hebrews – An Encouragement to Stay Faithful to Jesus, Part 1 first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

Some words are like cream cakes. If you have them too frequently, you forget what was so special about them the first time. And in extreme cases when they are repeated ad nauseam, you can become sick of them altogether.

For example: love, joy, grace, mercy, salvation. They’re all nice words, I hope you’ll agree. Good words — important words. They are foundational for Christianity. They also make for pretty platitudes, song lyrics, colourful posters, and things to scatter into conversation to show that we really are Christians. But there is a great danger that that is all they become, and no matter how many cross-shaped hundreds and thousands are sprinkled on top, our appetite for them is lost.

Another foundational word in our faith is just that: faith. It too risks losing meaning with repetition. After all, it is important to have faith in this faith, more so than in any other faith, because it is by grace through faith we are saved, and so we should remain faithful and act in good faith as we remember Him who is faithful unto us… If your name is Faith as well, your headache is liable to be even worse.

So it is helpful then that the writer of Hebrews gives a clear definition of this important word and concept: ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’ (Hebrews 11.1). It is a firm trust in what God tells us, despite what our eyes do or do not show us. In fact, my study Bible tells me that the Greek word translated as ‘faith’ is ‘pistis’, which can also be used in reference to things that are completely trustworthy.

It is by this sort of faith — this being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see — that we believe in God, and ‘understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible’ (Hebrews 11.3). It is also how we are to live.

‘By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did’ (Hebrews 11.11.4), because he knew with certainty that it was worth giving up the firstborn of his flock to offer God a favourable sacrifice. Noah, ‘when warned about things not yet seen’ did not place his trust in those he could see around him, who went on eating and drinking and marrying, but ‘in holy fear built an ark to save his family’ (Hebrews 11.7). One does not build an ark 300 cubits long on a mere whim, or on the off chance that there might be a flood. Abraham, promised a land that would be his inheritance, being sure of what he hoped for, ‘obeyed and went, even though he did no know where he was going’ (Hebrews 11.8). And although he and Sarah struggled at first, when they did trust in God’s promise rather than their age and barrenness, Abraham became a father through Isaac to many descendants, despite being, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, ‘as good as dead’ (Hebrews 11.12). (Incidentally, when they met in Heaven, I would liked to have heard the first conversation between the writer and Abraham.)

It is by ‘being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’ (Hebrews 11.1), that we believe in God, live our Christian lives from that point on, and then, when He decrees it, it is also how we are to die. Whilst living, the Old Testament exemplars of faith did not seek with their eyes somewhere to call home, or take opportunities to return to the place they were called from, but ‘admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth’ (Hebrews 11.13). They were sure and certain of something greater, and thus ‘God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them’ (Hebrews 11.16).

The post Hebrews – Models of Faith in the Old Testament first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

‘Judas went out, and it was night’ (John 13:13). Boy, was it ever. Looking back on that fateful last supper with his Lord, John hit the nail right on the head. He remembered Judas leaving and it all clicked into place. John knew that that night had been about light vs. dark, truth vs. lies, and good vs. evil.

Judas had sat in the place of honour that night. He had broken bread with Jesus to fulfil the Scripture that says: ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me’ (John 13:18, Psalm 41:9). The disciples were shocked when Jesus mentioned betrayal, but Judas knew his role, and Christ confirmed it, saying: “What you do, do quickly” (John 13:27). And off Judas went, into the devil’s dark domain, morally blind, his back forever turned on the Lord of light.

But what, you ask, does this have to do with Jesus’ perfect sacrifice and the New Covenant? Well, where do you trace the New Covenant back to? Maybe Deuteronomy, where Moses saw a day when Israel will gain “a heart to understand” (29:4). Maybe you think of God saying “days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah … I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31-33).

Personally, the words “New Covenant” take me to the Last Supper; to the bread and the cup. The last Passover was a demarcation line between God’s Old and New covenants. That is why Paul quoted Jesus word-for-word when he taught on the magnitude of communion to the churches (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). For believers were being brought out from under the weight of the Old Covenant and wrapped in the grace of the New.

I go to the Last Supper when I hear “New Covenant” because of Hebrews 10. As John told us, that night was about light vs. dark, good vs. evil. And is that not the picture Hebrews paints of the Old and New Covenants? For ‘the old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves’ (Hebrews 10:1).

I love films. Always have. The highpoint of my childhood weekends was visiting charity shops and being told by mum that I could buy any video less than £1. Did this mean I bought films with an age-rating above my own? You betcha. But mum didn’t seem to mind, and so my love of film was born. A bonus were the trailers that played before the film itself. They were previews of good things to come, but as intriguing and entertaining as they were, they paled in comparison to the feature film that mum’s precious pound had bought me.

So, the Last Supper was about two kinds of shadow. The first was Satan’s shadow, the one that overtook Judas and thought it could overcome Christ. The second was the shadow of the law. This shadow was cast upon the wall for Jews, much like Plato’s allegory of the cave. But, like the prisoners in Plato’s tale, if only the Jews turned from mere shadows, they would behold the true source, the blinding sun that is the light of Christ.

Communion guides us to the Light. We eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. No longer are we bound to shadow; to animal sacrifices that could not save but reminded Jews of their need to be cleansed (Hebrews 10:3-4). No, we now abide in Christ. We remember Him always. We know our need and receive salvation as a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), knowing Jesus kept the law on our behalf to welcome us into a New Covenant and a new age of grace.

The post Hebrews – Jesus Compared to the Sacrifices and Covenant first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

I saw a film once that was loosely based on Greek myth. It wasn’t particularly good, and I can’t remember much of the plot, but there are two things from it that I can recall: that it starred Liam Neeson as Zeus, and that he was dying. And it was the reason that he was dying (Zeus, not Neeson) that stuck in my mind more than anything. According to the film, the source of his immortality was human prayer, and people had stopped praying to him.

You do not need to be well versed in Greek myths to know that the lowercase ‘gods’ that muck about in them could not be further removed from the one true God, but this addition on the part of the filmmakers makes them even more alien in concept. To require the work of mortals to continue being divine calls into question just how divine they could be in the first place.

For God does not need our prayers to go on being God. Instead, He hears our prayers for our benefit out of love, not necessity. The same goes for the sacrifices of the old covenant with the Israelites. ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,’ writes the psalmist, for He does not want these things in themselves, and ‘burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require’ (Psalm 40:6). The sentiment is echoed in Isaiah: ‘“The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats’ (Isaiah 1:11).

This shouldn’t suggest that the sacrifices of the old covenant were wrong, or contrary to God’s will. He commanded them, after all, and laid out the ceremonial law in great detail for a reason. They provided atonement (albeit provisionally) for the people in a manner that showed them the severity and cost of their sins, and reminded them of their God and what He had done for them. The covenant was made for their benefit, out of God’s love for them. The problem lay in the people.

The people, like the psalmist, continually needed lifting ‘out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire’ (Psalm 40:2) for they were surrounded by their iniquities: ‘my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head’ (Psalm 40:12). They broke the covenant in spite of God’s faithfulness (Jeremiah 31:32), and the sacrifices were made out of habit. A tax, almost, that had to be made to supposedly appease the LORD.

How telling it is that it is easier to make so-called sacrifices and follow detailed ceremony than it is to effect genuine change to the wayward heart. For it is genuine repentance and obedience that God wants for us. To be able to say: ‘I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart’ (Psalm 40:8). Not for God’s benefit, but for ours.

And so through Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant, unlike the first, whereby He would incline His people to their duty: ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts’ (Jeremiah 31:33). The law would no longer be merely external but internal, and they would all not only know the law but ‘[k]now the LORD’ (Jeremiah 31:34). Do we not have a helper in the Holy Spirit for achieving this end?

And in this new covenant, God said: ‘I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more’ (Jeremiah 31:34), because He was going to provide a sacrifice that was perfect and all sufficient. Not for His benefit, but for ours.

The post Hebrews – Sacrifice and Covenant first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

Goodness is an essential characteristic of God. He is not evil, nor can He be tempted with evil (James 1:13). One way that God made this goodness known to Israel was by forbidding judges from perverting justice (Exodus 23). And to humanity as a whole, God is so good that He sustains the saved and unsaved alike: “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteousness” (Matthew 5:45).

Though God is the ultimate good, we are all guilty of seeking His glory before His goodness. We want to see His might, just like Moses, who feared leading Israel and told God: “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here … I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:15-18). Yes, God’s glorious power means He can do anything, but He wills to do what is good.

So, having displayed His glorious power against Pharaoh, parted the Red Sea, and led Israel safely to Sinai, God cut a covenant with His people. The Lord of heaven and earth, the creator of time and space, chose a slave nation, freed them, nursed them in the desert, all so He might make Himself known to them. And how did Israel respond when Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law? They ‘assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Arise, make us gods who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1).

When Moses returned, his reaction was severe. He smashed the 10 Commandments, ground the golden calf to dust, and forced Israel to drink their abomination. But when Moses went back up Sinai to beg forgiveness, God shocked him and responded with grace, saying: “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. But now go, guide the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you” (Exodus 32:33-34). Even after their betrayal, God refused to clean house and find a new people.

Understandably, Moses now had big doubts about the road ahead. The stiff-necked treachery of Israel was no small concern. This brings us to an all-important request: ‘Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:18).

Moses was desperate, and God was kind. He went from promising to send an angel to telling Moses that His very presence would go with Israel. But it still wasn’t enough. Moses was broken. He needed to see God’s glory, and boy did God show it … just not how Moses expected. God’s glory came with this declaration: “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion” (Exodus 33:19).

God showed His glory alright. He did it by revealing His goodness, His grace, and His unmerited compassion. Glory in Hebrew means heft and honour. It describes a weighty reputation, a vast wealth, or an untold splendour. But God’s glory is different and unique. God’s glory is tied to His divine kindness on lowly mankind.

This revelation wasn’t what Moses expected or even wanted, but it’s certainly what he needed. God reminded Moses, Israel, and all the redeemed of all the ages that His identity – His very name! – centres upon His mercy. We did not earn our salvation. Like ancient Israel, we were the least of people and the worst of sinners. Then God passed by us and said: “Live. Live! Come out of sin and be made alive in Christ!” And for that we are eternally grateful.

The post Remembering What God Has Done first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

When Psalm 110 declares the coming Messiah to be ‘a priest forever’ (Psalm 110:4), an important distinction is made, one which the author of Hebrews sees as significant enough to quote and repeat multiple times between chapters five and seven. The Messiah, whom we are blessed to know as Jesus Christ, is ‘a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek’ (Psalm 110:4, my emphasis). But why is this significant? We looked at who Melchizedek was last week, but why is it important that Jesus be of his order?

Well, once upon a time, there was a girl called Phoebe. Phoebe (for the purpose of this analogy) was a good student, but there was one subject that she excelled at: chemistry. It fascinated her completely; studying and understanding how atoms and molecules and solutions worked behind the scenes of everything. It was clear to everyone that whatever career she chose later down the line, chemistry would lead her to it and be a large part of it.

One day though, on walking into the school laboratory and taking her usual seat, she noticed something was off. The chemistry teacher’s white coat was hanging on the back of the door, but the chemistry teacher himself wasn’t there. Instead, behind his desk, clad in tracksuit and skimming quickly through a textbook, was the PE teacher. When everyone had come into the room, he stood up and explained himself.

He was to be their substitute teacher. Phoebe’s spirits sank.

Over the next few weeks, several substitutes came and taught her chemistry class. Apparently, there was something of a teacher shortage going on, and science teachers in particular were becoming very hard to find. So Phoebe simply had to put up with it. And to give the substitutes their due, they got the job done, and in most case were clearly trying their best. But they were far from ideal. They each had their own interests, and their chemistry knowledge was only textbook deep at best.

But at last, the headmaster said that there was good news. He came into the laboratory before the lesson began one day, and told the class that they needn’t be dismayed much longer, because they were soon going to have someone new.

‘And I promise you,’ he said, pausing for dramatic effect, ‘that they are the best substitute teacher that ever was.’

Would you feel overly encouraged by that? It would be an improvement certainly, but still not quite what was needed.

Every analogy is flawed to some extent, and the above is no different. But, in a loosely similar sort of way, Jesus couldn’t just be another priest in the order of Aaron. As perfect a priest as He is and would have made in that order, besting all who came before, it was a different order entirely that was required. The author of Hebrews writes: ‘[i]f perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood […] why was there still need for another priest to come—one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?’ (Hebrews 7:11).

An order was required that was better than the order of Aaron. An order was required that predated the order of Aaron. An order was required that had, in fact, blessed the order of Aaron before it began. An order was required that was based on someone who had ‘become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life’ (Hebrews 7:16).

The promise of Psalm 110 was not merely for a better version of what God’s people already had, but for a greater thing altogether. For a priest who was better, a king of righteousness and peace, who brought the bread and wine of a new covenant.

But although Jesus Christ is ‘in the order of Melchizedek’ (Hebrews 5:6), and Melchizedek by all accounts was a good priest and king, Melchizedek himself was but a shadow of Him. Melchizedek was like Jesus, not the other way around; Jesus wasn’t fitting into his mould.

Melchizedek was but a chemistry teacher, but Jesus Christ is a full-blown chemist.

The post Hebrews – Jesus compared to the Priests and Melchizedek first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

When we talk about priests today, we think of different things. Some picture a man in a robe or a backwards collar who goes around blessing people, passing out religious elements, or performing certain rituals. But if you’re currently reading Leviticus – or if you’ve skipped ahead in Hebrews – you probably picture a Jewish priest, with his many duties of service and sacrifice.

Priests today are offbeat, existing in a religious world all their own. And that goes for all priests, be they Catholic, Buddhist, Shinto, Hindu, or even Zoroastrian. But to Israelites, priests were exalted and intrinsic to the faith. Our word for priest comes from the Latin pontifix. Taken apart, pontifix means bridge-builder, and this is how Jews saw their priests. They were descendants of Aaron whose work bridged the gap from fallen man to transcendent God.

To Jews, religion was access to God. And since they couldn’t go directly to God, they needed a mediator. Priests were those mediators. Those middlemen who received tithes and sacrifices like doves or lambs, then offered them to God to cover sin. “For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). But we’re getting aheads of ourselves, and of Hebrews.

With such importance assigned to Jewish priests, we could be forgiven for thinking priests don’t arrive in the Bible until Leviticus. But we would be wrong. In fact, the first priest in Scripture is the illusive and illustrative Melchizedek, “the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High” (Genesis 14:18). This Melchizedek appears then disappears just as fast. He brings out bread and wine to Abram and blesses the great patriarch at a moment of triumph. And in return, Abram gives this mysterious kingly priest a tenth of all his war-spoils. End of story…but not quite.

God saw fit to recall Melchizedek not only in Psalm 110 – describing Messiah who was to come – but in even greater detail in Hebrews 5, 6 and 7. Now, if Hebrews succeeds in proving Jesus is a superior priest in every way, it behoves us to see the ways in which even Melchizedek surpassed the Levitical priesthood. To do this, let’s compare and contrast.

While Aaron’s priesthood was national and strictly Judaistic, Melchizedek represented all men as he predated Aaron. Second, Levitical priests were under the rule of Israel’s largely awful kings, never being kings themselves. Third, Aaron’s priesthood did not offer permanent peace or righteousness, but a perpetual need to sacrifice. And fourth and fifth, the priesthood was hereditary and timed. It didn’t matter how noble or crooked you were, Aaron’s heirs served from the age of 25 to 50, then it was forced retirement.

Are you starting to see it? Melchizedek’s priesthood was greater in every way! This king-priest was universal. He ruled and offered worship. He was righteous in name and deed. He had no need to offer sacrifice. And he had no lineage to speak of, no beginning or end to his reign or work on the earth. To ancient Jews, these truths were a brief curiosity sequestered to Genesis 14 and Psalm 110. But to New Covenant believers coming out of Judaism and into Christ, such facts meant the world.

The fact that ancient an king-priest superseded God’s ordained Levitical priest put Jesus into a whole new focus. The true King of Righteousness – Jesus Christ – was here. He came with bread and wine, asking only for tithes of faith. In return, He gives eternal life, not just to Abram’s seed, but to all who trust Him. And “this High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

The post Hebrews – The Priests and Melchizedek first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

It is with great solemnity that I must deliver this news. If you haven’t yet heard it, I recommend that you find a chair and steel yourself before going further. Perhaps pop the kettle on too.

God is not an Englishman.

It’s true, I’m afraid. As much as I am hoping that there will be cream teas, steam trains, and Exmoor-like rolling hills in Heaven, the King of Heaven does not hail from Ol’ Blighty. And Pentecost, as I see it, is about as clear enough evidence as you can get.

Humour me for a moment, and try to imagine an English Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit coming up to the door to tap on it gently, and perhaps make a polite cough or two until the apostles notice He is there. The crowd, upon hearing words in all of their native languages, thinking little more than, ‘How odd and peculiar,’ with a shrug. Peter, standing up sheepishly to say, ‘Excuse me, sorry to cause a fuss, but if you wouldn’t mind too much, I really think you ought to hear a bit about this Jesus fellow.’ Then, finally, the crowds responding with a collective, ‘Well, thank you very much. You’ve given us a lot of food for thought. But we really ought to be on our way. Why don’t we come back at the same time next week?’

It doesn’t really have the same gusto behind it, does it?

The birth of the church in reality was anything but reserved, and Luke makes sure we know it.

The gathered apostles, their hearts and minds perhaps still reeling from the roller-coaster of emotions that was witnessing Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, ‘[s]uddenly [hear] a sound like the blowing of a violent wind’ and see ‘tongues of fire’ (Acts 2:2-3). The crowd outside is in ‘bewilderment’, ‘[u]tterly amazed’ and ‘perplexed’ (Acts 2:6, 7, 12). Peter and the eleven, who had not so long ago been hiding in fear of Jews, now stand to deliver the gospel to them. And those who hear it do not merely take on board the news, but are ‘cut to the heart’ and baptised, and ‘[e]veryone was filled with awe’ (Acts 2:37, 43).

When the Holy Spirit moves, the scene is raw and powerful and unapologetically so. Very un-English indeed.

However, though God is not an Englishman, He is most certainly for the English, to which Pentecost again is about as clear enough evidence as you can get.

Though the crowd was made up of members of ‘every nation under heaven’ (Acts 2:5), each one heard their own language being spoken. In quoting Joel, Peter says: ‘Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit’ (Acts 2:17-18). In other words: ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ (Acts 2:21).

Everyone.

If modern English existed in the first century, and a speaker of it somehow stumbled their way into Jerusalem on that day, I have little doubt they would have heard it from the apostles’ mouths as well. And just to make things absolutely crystal, Peter finishes with this: ‘The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.’ (Acts 2:39)

Kettle boiled yet?

The post Pentecost Sunday 2026 first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.

This Week’s Thoughts

The Bible tells of our rosy start, our sudden fall, and God’s plan to return us to His Promised Land. We all bear God’s image, but we are all ego-centric. Most people try and pave their own way back to Eden, but none can succeed. God alone draws the map. He alone wins us a ‘city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God’ (Hebrews 11:10).

The Promised Land sworn to Abraham and his offspring was and is a physical place. The first 5 books of Scripture end with a longing to return and inhabit God’s promise, but the New Testament reveals that the Promised Land is also more than dirt and borders.

By the time of Christ, Jews prayed for a Messiah to rid their land of Rome. God had created it with care, telling Moses it was “a good and spacious land…flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). So the same leaders who were perplexed by Jesus also loved the land and wanted Messiah to reconquer, renew, and return Israel to its rightful heirs: them. Only Jesus saw things different. He saw the truth behind the truth; the eternal kingdom behind the earthly land.

The apostles pondered this as they marked one last Passover with their Lord. The first Passover had been a prelude to Israel’s exodus out of Egypt and into Canaan; out of bondage and into God’s promise. So hopes were high that night in the upper room. Then Jesus dashed them. Once Judas left to betray Him, Christ got down to business, saying: “Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for Me, but you can’t come where I am going” (John 13:33).

What?! The apostles were shocked. Naturally, Peter spoke up first, asking: “‘Lord, where are You going?’ And Jesus replied, ‘You can’t go with Me now, but you will follow Me later’” (John 13:36). How could this be? Wasn’t Jesus – the greater Joshua – meant to claim the Promised Land for His own? Apparently not…

Now, Jesus was not breaking God’s promises. But He was giving a seismic reframing of God’s plan, so He buoyed the disciples up, saying: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? Where everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am” (John 14:1-3).

The I AM sayings in John are demarcation lines between old and new covenants. They neither destroy nor diminish God’s promises to Abraham, but they do point to eternity. What Scripture hints at, Jesus fulfils! He is the bread of life that feeds us as we journey through the wilderness and into heaven. He is the light of the world that acts as our beacon. He is the door we pass through into the new creation. He is the good shepherd that lays down His life for the flock, dying for our eternal inheritance.

Thomas gets bad press for doubting, but at least he spoke up at the Last Supper when others just trembled. Thomas sought assurance, knowing Jesus loved him enough to give it. He disagreed with Jesus that the disciples knew where He was going, saying: “‘Lord, we do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me’” (John 14:5-6). What a mic-drop moment!

Jesus is not one way among many to the Promised Land. Christ is and always will be the only way! As Paul says: “All of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’ And through Christ, our ‘Amen’ (which means ‘Yes’) ascends to God for His glory” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The Promised Land awaits. It truly does. You only have to trust and follow Jesus and He will meet you there.

The post Hebrews – Jesus Compared to Moses & the Promised Land first appeared on Minehead Baptist Church.