Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

As we come today to the book of Hebrews, we will see Jesus in His "high priest" role of the future Temple. The fact that we are discussing this issue is evidence that Jesus Christ will rule and reign in a future Temple to stand on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The ancient Jewish prophet Zechariah tells us that Jesus will build that Temple, Zechariah 6:12. The prophet also says in Zechariah 6:13 that He will rule and reign from the Temple He builds in Jerusalem. There will be a priesthood set up for this Temple that will operate which I refer to as the "Messiah's Temple".

This Temple is described in Ezekiel 40-46 which is 202 verses of detailed information on the Temple Jesus builds. These verses give the architectural specifications for this coming Temple. It will be a Temple where future sacrifices will be made unto the Lord.

As we remember that sacrifices in the past did not take away sins, these future sacrifices will also not take away sin. Jesus himself was the ultimate sacrifice. All future sacrifices will be done in memorial to Him for what His sacrifice accomplished for each of us. It guaranteed us salvation by putting our faith in what He did for us.

Notice in the passage for today, Jesus will become the "high priest" in this coming new Temple. But look again. The high priestly duties that Jesus will perform will be not from the code of Aaron, the first high priest. Jesus will be of the high priestly order of Melchisedec.

Melchisedec is not only a "high priest" but also a "king", Genesis 14:17-19. Melchisedec was a king of the city-state of Jerusalem. There is not a lot we know about this "priest-king". We do know that he had no beginning and no end. He has always been and will always be who he is, possibly Jesus Christ himself.

This passage of prophecy is a necessity for the readers of pre-written history, penned by the ancient Jewish prophets. We must be looking daily for His return to become the "high priest". That day could be very close at hand.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank you, Lord, for our own high priest, the one who has always been and will always be.

Paul introduces "angels" in Hebrews 1 and tells us that "Jesus Christ is so much better than the angels," verse 4. He reveals that angels were actually created on the first day of creation in order to minister to those of us who are saved, the "heirs of salvation", Hebrews 1:14.

As we come to the second chapter of Hebrews, and notice that I believe Paul was the author of this book, the writer reveals how Jesus chose to dwell among humankind. Paul states that Jesus took on the form of a man, "made a little lower than the angels", verse 9. Christ did this so that "He by the grace of God should taste death for every man".

Then Paul reminds us that Jesus is the Creator, verse 10, and that He created Lucifer, the most prominent of all angels, who would rebel, and become the adversary, the Devil.

However, the Devil, who had the "power of death" would be destroyed, rendered inoperative, and would no longer be able to cause those who receive Christ to fear death and live a lifetime of bondage, verse 15.

Hebrews 1 & 2 speaks much about angels. Angels played a significant role in the first coming of Jesus; announcing the birth of Christ; ministering to Jesus in the wilderness; the evil angels inhabiting human bodies, which made them demons: and ministered to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane just prior to His death.

Angels will play a key role in the Second Coming of Jesus, both good and evil angels. Evil angels inhabit lost people today, especially world leaders and false teachers. Good angels act as "guardians" especially for the little children, as well as adults.

Jesus will be accompanied by a host of angels when He returns to the earth at His Second Coming. At that time He comes to defeat the Devil.

Antichrist and False Prophet, who are humans empowered and possessed by evil angels, will be defeated by Jesus at His coming when He is "crowned with glory and honor", verse 9.

These truths should cause us to rejoice over what He has done for us and what He will do for us.

I could hardly wait to get to the book of Hebrews for our devotional thought for today. Now having said that, let's look at the first chapter of this book of the unknown author, unknown but believed by many to be the apostle Paul. That is a debate for another time. We do know that whoever the human author was, he had the entire book "breathed into" him by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead who inspired the human authors, some 40 of them, over 1,500 years. These men wrote 66 books that have no contradiction and all of the authors speak of the Lord's plan for humankind throughout all the ages.

God, in the past, did raise up the ancient Jewish prophets to speak His word to us. But, as the text says, "in these last days has spoken to us by His Son". Our key verse tells us where Jesus is, today. He is now seated at the right-hand of the Father in the 3rd heaven.

This is an important truth. It tells us that Jesus is not on His throne, which is yet to come, in an earthly kingdom that will be set up in Jerusalem. This is key to understanding what the future holds for our Lord. His kingdom is yet to come.

There is another precious truth in this first chapter of Hebrews. The reading today explains to us that Jesus is so much better than "angels", verse 4. The entire chapter tells us how superior Jesus is to angels who were created by Him.

However, there is a blessing for us with the creation of angels, they are all "ministering spirits", sent by the Lord to minister to us who are heirs of the salvation that Jesus provides.

These angels are to guard over us, to take us into His presence when we die, and to be "fellow servants" with us in our ministry for Him. By the way, when He does leave the right-hand of the Father to come for us to join Him, the angels will come with Him. I would love to see Him and His angels today.

It is true that there is no prophetic passage found in the book of Philemon. However, in this little New Testament book, I find Paul as our example of how to work towards a "crown" that will be given to some at the Judgment Seat of Christ. It is the "Crown of Glory" spoken of in I Peter 1:1-4.

The "Crown of Glory" is given to those who are always ready to step up to "feed the flock", to build them up in the things of the Lord. Peter reveals that we do not serve as "feeders of the flock" for filthy lucre and not by constraint, I Peter 5:2. Peter's exhortation is for us to be an example to the flock.

You know that is what Paul is doing in Philemon. Paul is showing Philemon, by example, how to deal with a former servant of Philemon, the person who stole from him and then fled to Rome, the servant Onesimus.

When Onesimus arrived in Rome, he made contact with Paul and was converted to Christianity. Paul knew the circumstances surrounding the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus, and he is used of the Lord to develop Onesimus into a very profitable brother in the Lord.

Next, Paul having built into the life of the "servant", now wants to build into the life of his former owner, the one who had been violated. Paul writes to Philemon requesting that he take back his former employee, one who could be very profitable to him in the future, verse 11.

Paul is working towards that "Crown of Glory" Peter wrote about, as he works with both Philemon and Onesimus. Paul was ambitious for these crowns, II Corinthians 5:9, because he knew that these crowns would one day be presented back to the Lord Jesus in thanksgiving for what He has done for us, Revelation 4:10.

The "Crown of Glory" is only one of five crowns we can receive at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We receive a "crown incorruptible" for bringing our body under subjection, I Corinthians 9:27. We will be rewarded a "crown of rejoicing" for being a soul winner, I Thessalonians 2:19. There is the "crown of life" for not yielding to temptation, James 1:12. There is also the "crown of righteousness" for loving the appearance of Jesus Christ at the Rapture, II Timothy 4:8.

In Philemon, Paul, by example, helps us to understand how to receive the "Crown of Glory".

PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord help me to work towards attaining all five of the crowns so that I can give them back to you in thanksgiving.

The portion for our reading today is one of my favorite writings of the Apostle Paul. Once again, as is the case with young Timothy, another young man comes alongside the experienced minister, Paul.

Young Titus will also be used to travel to the churches across the then known world to help build them in the faith. Paul has given Titus the instruction and information to take to these churches. These were churches that would benefit from the help needed to build their local churches.

This second chapter of Titus is further instruction for how individual members of these local churches should be involved in this church ministry, a church ministry that will develop the proper church leadership.

Always remember that these are new churches with a team of new leaders who actually do need to know how to build new churches. You can imagine that if these "pastoral epistles" are so needed for church leadership today, how much more important in the first century.

Paul gives Titus the instructions for the aged men and women in these new congregations as well as the young men and women of these churches. This instruction is applicable to those same people in our churches today and is found in verses 2-6.

There is much more in this chapter to appropriate for our own edification, but before I close, let's look at two more verses - verses 12 and 13 .

Paul, in these two very profound verses, tells us to lay aside some activities and to live others. The apostle tells Titus to lay aside ungodliness and worldly lusts, which is negative. Then Paul goes positive when he tells Titus to live soberly, righteously, and Godly. If you stop to think about this it is pretty hard to lay aside that which is wrong and live that which is right.

However, here is the part I love the best. Paul tells us how to do that which he told Titus to do. We can "lay aside" that which is wrong and "live" that which is right by "looking" for the "blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ". The "blessed hope" is the Rapture of the true believers in the church here on earth.

These two verses indicate to us that Godly living is produced in our lives by focusing on the future. We can focus better on the future and His call for us to join Him in the heavens as we look at current events in light of Biblical prophecy. A good knowledge of Bible prophecy comes with a committed study of the prophetic passages in His Word.

As we come to the book of Titus for our devotional today, there is one portion of this very important instruction from Paul to the church and it’s leadership that immediately comes to my mind. I am referring to Titus 2:12-13. These two verses tell us how to lay aside things that are bad and live that which is good. We do both, the negative and the positive as we are looking for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ.

For another devotional, I'll spend time developing that formula for life in the last days. However, let us look with you now for the instruction Paul gives the local church in the last days.

Paul had commissioned Titus to travel to the churches and make certain they had good leadership and were defending the faith against the apostasy of that day. God's plan for winning the lost to Him is the operation of a local church. The local church has a two-fold ministry, evangelism and education. We must win them and then grow them in the things of the Lord.

Paul would send Titus to the different churches to ordain elders, the leaders of the local assemblies, verse 5. These men had to meet certain qualifications, verses 6-8, and be men who hold fast the "faithful word of God". These men were to teach others as they had been taught so that all members at that local church might have the right doctrines to stand up against false teachers and false teachings.

Paul warned Titus that even in the local church there would be those deceivers that church leadership must deal with as these "false prophets" endeavored to spread their "false doctrine".

In light of the central theme of Titus, "how to live right as we await the coming of Jesus Christ", the local assembly must have Biblical leadership in place to teach the right doctrine as we approach the soon coming of Christ. This warning of false doctrine, false teaching, and deception is the number one sign of the second coming of Jesus Christ, Matthew 24:4, 5, 11 & 24.

Please do remember, that the Rapture precedes the Second Coming by seven years. The Rapture could happen today!

PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me to understand right doctrine, especially as we approach the time of Your return.

I love the promise of a "crown of righteousness" that will be given to me at the "Judgment Seat of Christ" according to our key verse, verse 8, in our devotional reading for today.

I'll take a closer look at verse 8 in a moment but first let's look at the entire reading for today. Paul gives us a charge for today, even though it was written for the first century Church.

The principles of scripture are "timeless". Think about that statement. As we see even what have been "good" churches in our day slipping away from their connection with God's Word and His direction in every day life, especially in these last days, we must heed Paul's exhortation.

Paul gives us this charge before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 1. Verses 2-5 reveal what the charge for us today includes. Verse 2, "preach the Word," the Word that we are to study diligently, II Timothy 2:15.

Here's what we are to do, preach the Word and do it "in season and out of season". That means when we have an opportunity, "in season;" or when we make an opportunity, "out of season."

"Preaching the Word" is for reproof, rebuke, exhortation and doctrine, verse 2. We must "preach the Word" before there will be a time when even the members of the "body of Christ", the Church, will not endure "sound doctrine".

We are quickly approaching that time, a time when people will be going after their own lust, looking for teachers that "tickle the ears" of the hearers. We are quickly approaching the time Paul describes here when people turn from the true doctrines of the Word of God to man's fables.

Paul tells us, as he told the first century Church, to do the work, making full reproof of our ministry, verse 5. Paul then gives us his "swan song", verses 6 and 7. Paul realizes that his time of service is coming to an end. He "fought the fight", he "finished the course" and as he did so, he "kept the faith".

This is the example to follow, "fight the fight, finish the course and keep the faith" along the way. Now, at the end of Paul's thirty years of ministry, he is prepared because of what he tells us in II Timothy 4. He is looking forward to receiving the "crown of righteousness" at the Judgment Seat of Christ because he loves the "any moment" appearing of Jesus Christ at the Rapture.

Then Paul shares with us that we too can look forward to that same "crown of righteousness" if we also love His appearing and long for Him to come to take us to be with Him.

We must "love that appearing" more than anything this world has to offer. An in-depth study of Bible prophecy will help us to realize where we are in God's time for the last days. An understanding of "current events" in light of Bible prophecy will intensify our longing for His return.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me Lord, to fight the fight, finish the course and keep the faith as I eagerly await Your shout for me to join You in the heavenlies.