.Hebrews 12:3
.
"Consider Him
who endured such opposition from sinful men,
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. "
.
Sunday morning, while teaching my 3rd-4th grade Bible Class, we were finishing up and several of the children had questions... some things that were on their hearts...- We had talked about "priests" that day and I explained that in the Old Testament there were priests, but it was only the High Priest who went into the Holy of Holies. In the New Testament, Jesus said that each christian is a priest and He is the High Priest. Of course, they wanted to talk about why some of their friends opposed that belief today. Some of their friends still believe that they need to confess their sins to an official "priest" while other of their friends do not even believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, so how can He be High Priest.
- We also talked about the sadness in Haiti. They had questions about earthquakes, natural catastrophies, and the Voodoo and witchcraft that so many of our Haitian neighbors believe in. They knew that was opposed to what Jesus taught.
- Then, they had questions about the devil. They were fascinated by the fact that the word "evil" is in the devil's name and God is three of the letters in the word "good". Of course, that led to a discussion of these directly opposite forces. We talked about the devil being the "father of lies" and God being the "Father of Love" .
Since Sunday on this blog we have focused on IN CHRIST ALONE... CONSIDER HIM... Once in this verse and once in the verse before, the Hebrew writer uses the word ENDURED. .
"Consider Him
who endured such opposition from sinful men,
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. "
.
In considering Him, we cannot leave out the fact that He ENDURED as well as the type of people who were OPPOSED to Him and really gave Him a hard time. Let's look in the Word for a few minutes to see the kind of stuff He had to put up with:
- Hebrews 4:15-16 "For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
- Matt 12:33-36 Jesus said... "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. "
- John 8:44 "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
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