Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join Wayne Burger each week as he explores various topics and scriptures and challenges listeners to meditate on God's Word more deeply.
Jesus offers a refugee camp. His refugee camp is himself and his church. Jesus purchased the church. It is a precious refuge.
A refugee camp is described as a temporary settlement, usually established near borders, designed to provide immediate protection and assistance to people fleeing conflict, violence, or persecution, offering basic necessities like shelter, food, and water. But what refugee camps usually become are places of built lack of provisions, overcrowded, not really a very good place to live, although many people have to live there because they're fleeing the problem in their home country. As we're studying the cities of refuge, the Hebrew writer makes reference to fleeing to Jesus Christ, who is our refuge.
And that phrase comes out of a background of the cities of refuge in the Old Testament. But each of those cities of refuge had a special insight into what kind of refugee camp it is by the name and word of the meaning of that city. We've come to the city of Rammoth, and it means "exalted."
So what we're looking at is Jesus Christ is an exalted refuge. It is not like the refugee camps that are in many countries that begin with a good intention and be helpful and then become so crowded and lack of provisions and all that they really become a very horrible place to live. Jesus Christ offers an exalted place of refuge.
I want us to look at that idea first off by seeing that Jesus Christ Himself is exalted and then by seeing that the church that Jesus established is also exalted. Peter, when he preached that first gospel sermon in Acts 2, preached about Jesus Christ. And in verse 33 he said, therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God the Father.
Jesus Christ, when He was resurrected and then ascended, He ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father in an exalted position. He is king over His kingdom. And so He is in that exalted place.
Peter again, as he spoke about Jesus Christ in Acts 5, 31, said He was exalted as a prince and Savior. Prince carrying the idea of a ruler. He is the ruler over the church.
The church is His kingdom. He is exalted, as it said there, as Savior. That is, He is the one who saves us from our sins.
He will save us eternally in heaven. He is our Savior. And that's the reason, again, in the book of Acts.
Peter said in Acts 4, verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby they must be saved. You see, Jesus Christ is in that exalted position.
He is sitting at the right hand of the Father to rule over the kingdom. He is exalted to be a prince, a ruler, and a Savior of those who are in that kingdom. And there's no other name whereby we can find that refuge other than the name of Jesus Christ.
We see and appreciate the exaltation of Christ as a refuge when Paul describes what took place in Jesus' life, as it's recorded in Philippians 2, 5 through 11. He said, Let this man be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, who made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, humbled himself to be a man. And not on that but death, but death on the cross.
But then notice that God has exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus has been exalted because of the great sacrifice he made. And part of the plan of God, he brought him to this earth as a sacrifice.
He died, was buried and rose, ascended back to be exalted to the right hand of God to rule over his church. But as we think about Jesus Christ being exalted, we also recognize that his church is exalted. It is exalted as we stop and think about it and spoken of in Scripture as being that exalted position.
There are several passages with regard to prophesying about the coming church. I want to read Isaiah 2, 2 through 4. Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established at the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. And all nations will stream into it.
And many people will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths, for the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Notice what Isaiah said was going to happen. He said in the last days, that is in the Christian age, you see time on earth has been divided into three different time periods.
From Genesis 1 through Exodus 18, we have the patriarchal period of time. And then beginning in Exodus 19 through Acts 1, we have the mosaic period of time. And then beginning in Acts 2, this is the last period of time in which people will live on the earth, for God takes everyone to heaven.
And so it is called the last days. And so he said in the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house, we think of those mountains that are majestic, powerful looking, sturdy. That's the way he describes what is going to be the church, the mountain of the house of the Lord.
And he will be established as the chief of the mountains. What a great picture the church is, that great mountain, exalted above all other mountains, physically or spiritually, figuratively, in terms of mountains of prosperity or mountains of power or mountains of businesses or whatever it may be. And he said it would be raised above the hills and all nations will stream into it.
You see, the church is that exalted building, not building, a spiritual building, that God established in Acts 2. Jesus Christ is the exalted head of that exalted church. And that church is that place of refuge. When we get into Christ, our refuge, we get into the church.
You cannot be reconciled to God without being in the church. And so Isaiah 2 described this great place of church that was going to be established and how it was going to be exalted. In Daniel 2, we have another picture of the exaltation of this church that was coming.
In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had a dream, but he couldn't remember it. And none of his wise men could tell him what he dreamed. He was about to kill them all.
And Daniel said, wait, don't kill them. I can tell you what you dreamed, and I'll tell you what it means. He said, here's what you saw.
You saw a great statue. And that statue was made of the head of gold and the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze, the legs ironed, and the feet part ironed and part clay. And he said, you also saw a little stone cut out of the mountains without hands.
And that little stone came down and struck the image at the feet. And that little stone consumed all these kingdoms and became a great mountain. You see the same language as Isaiah used.
That little stone that was cut out without hands indicating that it's a divine organization. That little stone represents the church. And he said, in verses 44 and 45, as that stone hit the feet of iron and clay, he said, the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed.
Neither shall the sovereignty of it be left on other people, but it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. The church is that exalted house, that refuge of Jesus Christ, that if we want to find refuge from the world and all the problems that are around us, we must flee to Jesus Christ and to the church that he has established. Thereby, we can find that refuge.
Notice there in the Daniel passage, he said that that stone struck that image in the feet where the iron were. He said, in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom. You see, each of those metals represented a world empire.
The gold represented Babylon. And that's what he said there in that passage. You are that head of gold.
The silver represented the Medes and the Persians. This is identified in chapters 7 and 8 of Daniel. The bronze represented the Greek empire with Alexander the Great being the head of that empire.
And then, therefore, the fourth world empire was the Roman empire. The church was established in the days that the Roman empire was ruling the world. There in the city of Jerusalem in 30 AD.
And so, the church has been exalted. It also has been exalted because of the great time and effort that God put into bringing it about. In Ephesians 3, Paul talks about that exalted position of the church and why it was exalted.
He begins in verse 8. To me, at the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things. Now, let's notice the next verse, verse 10. So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Notice verse 10 says that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church. When God established the church, that was his manifold wisdom. All of the ages he had been working to establish that church, he prophesied about it.
He had John preach to prepare it the way for Jesus. It was proclaimed and preached in Acts 2 as it was established, and it was proclaimed throughout the world as recorded in the book of Acts. And so the church is just as exalted as is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the exalted head. The church is the exalted position, body of Christ on earth. And then verse 11 says, this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You see, he simply says, this was not an accident. This was what God planned all along for us to have, is the church that was planned from the beginning. Before the world started, he planned for Jesus Christ to die to establish it.
And so we have that exalted position. And so when we flee to Christ for refuge, we must flee to that position of the church because that's the way we honor Christ, is that we get into the church where, which is his body. That exalted church offers a lot of comfort and strength.
It's in the church that we have fellowship with like-minded people. We are there and we gather to assemble to encourage one another. We have that forgiveness of sins by being in the church and maintaining faithfulness in the church.
Yes, God established a great refuge when he established the church. And if we are going to find refuge in Jesus Christ, we must find refuge in that church. Peter, as he preached that first gospel sermon in Acts 2, told those folks that that church was established.
And he said, and he exhorted them to believe. And when the people in verse 37 were convicted and said, what have we got to do? He said in verse 38, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. They had come to believe.
He had told them in verse 36, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God had made that same Jesus, Christ whom you have crucified. Exalted him to be a position of Lord. And then in verse 41, it says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized.
And the same day they were added under them, about 3,000 souls. When one is obedient to that gospel message, God adds him to the church. We don't join the church.
The church is so special that we have to be added by God. And that's the reason in Acts 2 verse 47, the King James version reads, praising God and having faith with all the people, and the Lord is added to the church daily, such as should be saved. And so if you want the refuge of Christ, you must be in the refuge of the church.
It has been exalted because it's being planned from eternity. It is exalted because Jesus died to establish the church. When Paul was speaking to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, verse 28, he said, take heed yourselves and all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you over, which is to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
Jesus purchased the church. Therefore, it is a precious refuge. It has been purchased by the blood of the Son of God.
And it is in that church that we find reconciliation with God. Paul, as he talked about the Jews and the Gentiles being reconciled to one another, he said they were both reconciled in one body by the cross. That's Ephesians 2 and 16.
We cannot be reconciled to God outside of the church. That's the reason the church is that exalted refuge. It was planned by God from eternity.
It was purchased by God's Son through the blood that he shed. It offers salvation for us where we can be saved in the end. And Paul says in Ephesians 5, 23, that when he comes back, he'll receive that church, which is his bride, and he'll take that bride home.
Are you in that exalted refuge, the church? If not, why not?
Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God's Word. Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and LightWay Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you're ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we'd love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at 4 at the Senior Center.
You're always welcome. For more information about this podcast, visit lightweightmedia.com/meditatingontheword and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study. Be sure to like, subscribe, and follow us on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode.
And if today's message encouraged you, share it with someone else and consider leaving a review. It helps others find us too. Until next week, keep meditating on the Word.