PART TWO: "Peace! Be Still!" How to settle our soul in the midst of wars and rumors of wars...

Jesus is ALIVE: knowing Jesus as our Great High Priest

Jesus is the Prince of Peace, our Messiah, and he has given us the KEY to having complete peace in the midst of trials, sorrows, and suffering. In John 16:33, Jesus says "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." When He says--"take heart, I have overcome the world" He is referring to his resurrection from the dead--He defeated death, hell, and the grave! We serve a resurrected/ALIVE KING. He is alive at this very moment, sitting at the right hand of the Father in the throne room of heaven, interceding (standing in the gap) on our behalf (Romans 8:34)! Not only that, but He is COMING BACK! One day He will return to judge the earth and save/redeem His Church (The Bride). Focusing and fixing our eyes on Jesus our ALIVE High Priest who is coming back as our BRIDEGROOM is exactly how Jesus designed for us to live in peace throughout anything we may face here on this earth. This reality of Jesus ALIVE is absolutely KEY. The disciples had 40 days with the resurrected Jesus after he died on the cross and then came back to life. This solidified the reality in their heart that HE REALLY IS ALIVE! Not only that, but they witnessed with their own eyes, the ALIVE JESUS ascend to heaven where He is NOW-- ALIVE and sitting at the right hand of God. So often we get focused on the death of Jesus--and while that is so crucial to our salvation and not be taken granted of--we lose sight of the fact he is not dead anymore, he is ALIVE, and that the same resurrection power that brought Jesus back to life is the same resurrection power that lives in us! Romans 8:11 says "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." So what does that mean? As a believer, we will never die because he has saved our spirit--the New Testament authors calls death 'sleeping' because as a follower of Christ, we move from LIFE to LIFE! Our eternity starts the day we are saved--when we identify with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:3-8). In John 11:25-26 Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die." Absolutely nothing can separate us from God's love! Not even death!

Romans 8:31-39

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us (*this is Jesus our High Priest*). Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and by the power of God he overcame death, was raised to eternal life, and now reigns forever in his eternal kingdom. Jesus Messiah came to die as the complete and final sacrifice to take away the sins of the world--he removed the penalty of sin (Romans 6:23). When he came back to life he then ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of God where he became Jesus, our High Priest. Now by His own blood and the Holy Spirit that he put within us, he gives us mercy/grace/power in every area of our life when we put our faith in him! As our High Priest, He removes the power of sin from our lives (Hebrews 4:15-16; Romans 6:12-14). He made us perfect (in spirit) before Father God when we put our faith in Jesus and his work as Messiah, and he gives us mercy/grace/power to be sanctified (made holy in our soul) when we put our faith in his work as Jesus, our High Priest and one day he will return as Jesus our Bridegroom where he will glorify/save our earthy bodies and remove the very presence of sin we witness on this earth.

Hebrews 10:11-14 11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet.14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect (justified) those who are being made holy (sanctified).

Hebrew 4:14-16 14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.16 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.

See post PART THREE to discuss how the revelation of Jesus as our High Priest gives us a CONFIDENT & LIVING HOPE an ANCHOR for our Soul