The Life and Ministry of Christ, Part 54
The Present Ministry of Christ
After returning back to the Father in heaven, Jesus entered into His threefold mediatorial role as Prophet, High Priest, and King of Kings. As Prophet, Christ sends His Spirit to convict the world regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. As our High Priest, He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, (Hebrews 7:26). He is continually interceding for His people and is able to save those who come to God through Him, (Hebrews 7:25). Unlike other high priests, Jesus Christ offered a single sacrifice for sins when He offered Himself for people’s sins. As King, He administers His kingdom’s affairs, gathering and protecting His church and subduing their enemies, and furnishing His church with gifts and graces. Now, He sits at the right hand of the throne of God as Prophet, Priest, and King, (Hebrews 8:1; 1:3; 12:2).
Hebrews 8:6 NKJV But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Christ’s present ministry involves preparation, intercession, intervention, and inspection.
The present ministry of Christ involves preparation.
John 14:2 NKJV In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Much of Christ’s ministry of preparation for us was accomplished on the cross. Were it not for the cross and Christ’s sufferings, we would have no access to the Father or heaven. After Jesus Christ’s ascension to the Father, His present work includes preparations for His own in the Father’s house. We are not given precise explanations of what He is preparing, but we are told much about them. Within the Father’s house or dwelling place are numerous mansions or rooms that are prepared with great detail by Jesus for your entrance into the celestial city and eternal abode. He made these preparations on the cross and in heaven itself. His present work may also include preparations in the New Jerusalem that will descend from God out of heaven, (Revelation 21:1-22:5). There is a “place prepared for you.” The literal translation for the word “mansions” is permanent dwelling places”, a “resting place.”
John 14:3 ESV And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
We have the Lord’s promise that there is a prepared place in heaven set aside for you. Part of His present ministry is the preparation of that place for you. The culmination of the preparation is the gathering together of those that are His into their eternal reward and heaven’s home. The Lord is coming back to take us where He is.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 NKJV For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet sound, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout. The dead in Christ shall arise first and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meed the Lord in the air. We shall be with the Lord for eternity! (1 Corinthians 15:51-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). This catching away begins a change that will last throughout the endless ages.
As our eternal High Priest, Christ’s present ministry also involves intercession and intervention.
Intercession and intervention are connected. Our great High Priest has gone into the heavens and as He intercedes, He intervenes for believers.
Hebrews 4:14 NKJV Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Hebrews 4:15 NKJV For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
As your High Priest, Jesus Christ is currently ministering with great sympathy and compassion. He perfectly understands our temptations, trials, sufferings, anxieties, weaknesses and physical need.
Hebrews 4:16 NKJV Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
As our eternal High Priest, Jesus is ever before the mercy seat in heaven to make intercession for us according to the will of God. The sympathetic Savior knows the feeling of your infirmities and weaknesses.
Hebrews 7:25-26 AMP Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them. [Here is] the High Priest [perfectly adapted] to our needs, as was fitting—holy, blameless, unstained by sin, separated from sinners, and exalted higher than the heavens.
He has ascended into a better sanctuary and true tabernacle which was not built by the hand of man but by God Himself. In the same manner in which the earthly high priest ministered with inferior sacrifices, Jesus Christ in His exalted position is appointed to offer His superior gift and sacrifice. His blood is superior and His sacrifice is sufficient to cover. Through Him, we may obtain mercy and grace to help in the time of need. Through Him, we are able to offer acceptable praise and worship to the Father.
2 Corinthians 3:4–5 NKJV And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
Hebrews 8:6 NKJV But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Christ is the Mediator of a better covenant in heaven itself. The Tabernacle and Temple that required purification served as copies of heavenly things. Jesus Christ entered into heaven itself and has obtained a more “excellent ministry” to God and man. In Revelation 11:19, the temple of God was opened in heaven and the ark of His covenant was seen, and there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake and great hail. Everything about the heavenly holies is more excellent.
Throughout the Old Testament, the High Priest ministered to both God and man.
His ministry was set apart and holy to God. He made it possible for people to be at peace with God and present acceptable worship. His ministry was one of intercession and intervention for people. The earthly high priest ministered before God with worship and praise.
Jesus is in heaven itself in a place of intercession and intervention.
In the most holy place in heaven, Jesus Christ stands in the presence of God. The sacrifice of Christ was perfect and pleasing to the Father because it satisfied every just demand. Christ is Mediator of a better covenant that is absolute and is not diminished or weak in any way. Christ mediates a better covenant that is not grounded on carnal or earthly provisions or principles. He is Mediator of a universal covenant that applies to all of the sin and need of man. He is Mediator of a better covenant that is eternal and not temporary. He is Mediator of a better covenant that offers real changes and not just an external covering. He is Mediator of a better covenant of grace that has been extended to everyone who will believe and receive. Through the blood of Christ, we have access to God so that we may obtain the mercy and grace that is needed.
Hebrews 9:11–12 NKJV But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
With His own blood, Jesus entered into the presence of God the Father to make a perfect offering and sacrifice for sins and obtained eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:13–14 NKJV For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:15 NKJV And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
The first covenant revealed the sinfulness and awful transgressions of man. Through Jesus Christ our Mediator, we receive the promise of an eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 9:24 NKJV For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Hebrews 7:25 NKJV Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
How can we who have not attained sinless perfection enter into the Father’s holy presence to obtain mercy and help for our time of need?
1 John 2:1 NKJV My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Jesus Christ our faithful High Priest has ascended to the right hand of God the Father and is constantly interceding and intervening for us, (Hebrews 4:14-16).
Part of the intercession and intervention of Christ is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
John 15:26 NKJV But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
John 16:7 NKJV Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, believers have constant and necessary communication that provides divine intervention in our times of need.
Romans 8:26–27 NKJV Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
It is important for you to understand the depth of intercession and intervention Christ is consistently involved in. He is ever-present with believers.
Matthew 28:20 NKJV Jesus said: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
As Prophet, the present ministry of Christ involves inspection regarding, sin, righteousness, and judgment.
He executes this office with infallibly and all authority unceasingly through the work of His Spirit to the church, (John 16:7-11).
Revelation 1:12–13 NKJV Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
In the Old Testament, the lampstand sat in the Holy Place and was the only source of light in the tabernacle. The Holy Spirit is the light that reveals Christ in all of His glory, beauty and wonder. The High Priest had the oversight of the lampstand. He was the one who poured in the oil and trimmed the wicks. Here in Revelation, Christ is in the midst of seven golden lampstands. Jesus said, “the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” (Revelation 1:20)
In Revelation 2-3, the Lord is inspecting and judging the churches.
He notices strengths and weaknesses of the church. He sees the conditions and battles we face. He knows our spiritual fervency or coldness. The Lord is fully aware of everything that transpires within His church. In His inspection, the Lord is ready to offer help, correction, reinforcement, and judgment. He is prepared to give new Oil and Fire. Since the Holy Spirit is represented as the light and oil in the Old Testament holy place, He is also the Light and Oil of the church. Jesus Christ, your Prophet and High Priest is interested in the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. The Holy Spirit gives necessary illumination of the things that are happening in the church. He gives necessary revelation of the things that are happening in the heart of the Father. He gives insight into the plans the Father has for the church. He is watching over this so that the church has a proper revelation of Christ.
The Lord’s eyes were as a flaming fire, penetrating with insight into the life of the church.
Luke 8:17 NKJV For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.
The bride of Christ is never out of the Lord’s sight and care. Since He is carefully inspecting His church, He knows exactly what we need and is able also to achieve everything He has promised. God has done everything that He possibly can to guarantee your eternal success.
As the Head of the church, Jesus Christ continues to minister as Prophet, Priest and King.
He rules, guides, and reigns in power and majesty. As your King, every principality, power, and ruler of darkness is under His feet. King Jesus rules and reigns.
Revelation 19:4–5 NKJV And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”
Revelation 19:6 NKJV And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”
