Walls Torn Down!

For Wednesday, October 1, 2025:

Hebrews 10:21-22 NLT: “Since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”

God desires to live among the people he created. The Bible says that God loves us! The problem arises that there can be no sin in the presence of the Lord. By definition, sin and God don’t go together. What to do?

The presence of the Lord was in a special inner room, the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place. The entrance was covered by a large, very heavy curtain. Mankind could visit the Temple where God was exalted, but we had separate spaces.

Enter Jesus. After Jesus, everything is different. After Jesus, everything is better! As he died on the cross, Jesus took the sins of the world to the place of the dead and left them there. Mankind had been forgiven, redeemed, purchased back from Satan’s pawn shop, Jesus himself being the ultimate sacrifice for the world’s sins. And since mankind was no longer carrying a sin-burden, there was no longer a need for separation from God. The giant curtain was torn from top to bottom, a sign that God was doing the tearing! There was now nothing separating the creation, mankind, from our Creator God. He says our sins are forgiven and forgotten, and God is never wrong!

If we’re expecting company, my wife wants our place to look nice, so I go outside to mow the lawn and straighten up the yard. I work hard. Then I hear, “You’ll need a shower before they get here!” We want to look our best when meeting someone for the first time! Fortunately, we have Jesus to clean us up before we meet the Father!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Author of Salvation!

For Thursday, July 17, 2025:

Hebrews 5:9 NLT: “God qualified Jesus as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.”

Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. This fulfilled God’s plan for Jesus to be “the author of our eternal salvation.” He is the source or the cause of our forgiveness and redemption. Jesus holds our reservation for residence in God’s forever kingdom.

Calling Jesus a High Priest is a nod to Jewish teaching and tradition. People would symbolically reconcile with God by having a High Priest take away their sins on the Day of Atonement. Jesus is the ultimate High Priest who came to forgive the sins of the world.

When someone dies and leaves an inheritance, it sometimes never gets to the intended recipient. Jesus died and rose again, so he could keep an eye on believers receiving their portion. We will not be robbed and we will not be short-changed! Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God, is the one distributing our salvation gift!

Claim your inheritance directly from the author of your salvation!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Plotting to Kill!

July 7, 2025, Monday Message:

John 11:48 NLT, Jewish High Council discussing Jesus: “If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.”

Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, brought him back to life! Jesus made quite a show of the whole thing. After being informed of Lazarus’ illness, Jesus tarried for two more days, I believe to make a point and to better show God’s glory! When Jesus finally arrived, he was cautioned not to open the tomb. Lazarus had been dead for four days and the smell would be horrible. Throwing caution to the wind, Jesus ordered the tomb opened and commanded, “Lazarus, come out!” As Lazarus exited the grave, his body appeared bound up for the hereafter. So Jesus commanded, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Now this isn’t something you see every day, someone four days dead walking out of a tomb! So everybody was talking about it, shouting the news and exalting the heavenly powers of Jesus of Nazareth. Some people began shifting their allegiance from the Temple to Jesus and his radical ministry. And as I’ve said before, when people leave the Temple, their tithes go with them!

Note that the High Council didn’t say that Jesus had done anything wrong. Only that if they allowed Jesus to continue, they feared that they’d be out of business! Jews had a special deal with Rome. If they kept peace in their region, Rome would allow their religion to continue. This was a unique concession on the part of Rome, since their Caesar wanted to be thought of as a god. But somehow the Jews were allowed to have their own God! The Council feared that the success of Jesus would threaten their sweetheart deal!

The high priest Caiaphas counseled the others: “It’s better that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.” So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus’ death. This was a sad time in the Jewish religion, where the leadership got so off track that they would consider murder. Little did they know that they were plotting the murder of the Son of God!

In fact, they were doing exactly what God wanted. As Jesus died, he would take the sins of the world to the place of the dead, thereby cleansing mankind and making them suitable for spending eternity alongside God Almighty! Heaven awaits!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

High Priest!

For Wednesday, July 2, 2025:

Hebrews 5:1 NLT: “Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins.”

The high priest stood between God and the Hebrew people. Since God called him, Jews believed their priest possessed holy authority. They could confess sins to their priest and present gifts of atonement. The gifts were actually for God.

On the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the priest would symbolically place the sins of the people onto the back of a goat, and shoo the goat into the wilderness, thereby separating the populace from their sins. That’s where we get the term “scapegoat.”

Jesus was endowed with that “high priest authority” by God. “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” But Jesus was eventually crucified and ascended back to the Father. So, where does that leave us?

When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom, destroying the separation between God and mankind. God did the tearing. Believers no longer need or desire a high priest. If we need to pray to the Lord, we can pray directly to him. If we need to confess and repent, we can speak with the Almighty. We pray to God “in Jesus’ name,” since Jesus is now our intercessor, the one who opened the gateway, clearing the path between God and mankind.

Unlike his predecessors, our high priest was perfect!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Blasphemy!

For Saturday, March 23, 2024:

Mark 14:63-64a NLT: After hearing Jesus claiming to be the I AM, “The high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, ‘Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy.’”

In spite of what they called it, this confrontation with Jesus wasn’t a real trial. Much like Putin being elected President of Russia, the verdict was known before the event ever took place.

Yesterday I pointed out the significance of Jesus calling himself the I AM. But it wouldn’t have mattered much what he said. The high priest called it blasphemy, and anything Jesus said would have been called blasphemy. The high council’s goal wasn’t to conduct a fair trial. The goal from the get-go was to eliminate this man competing for power and tithes. Furthermore, Jesus was teaching a philosophy that differed from the Temple teaching. The Temple teachers were consumed with enforcing the law, while Jesus taught forgiveness and love. Love God, love your neighbor.

So by tearing his clothes and calling Jesus’ testimony blasphemy, the High Priest in effect declared Jesus guilty. All present seemed to be on board. They spit upon Jesus and beat him. Mob mentality prevailed. The mob would do things that no individual would never do.

Don’t ever join the mob!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

High Priest!

For Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Hebrews 8:6 NLT: “Now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.”

If you were on trial, you’d want the best possible defense attorney, a spokesperson shielding you, an advocate working on your behalf. Having Jesus as our mediator gives us an edge, gives us hope!

The old covenant wasn’t working. God’s desire is that no one would be lost, so the rules needed to be rewritten, and Jesus went to work negotiating for mankind, taking the sin of the world upon himself, and making it possible for believers to see the inside of heaven! Jesus called it the “New Covenant!”

Jesus, our high priest, sits in the place of honor at the right hand of God himself. Our counselor is well-connected! Fortunately, our defender works pro bono!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship, 3249 30th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406