Outsider
According to Mental Health Foundation, New Zealand has the highest youth suicidal rates in the world.
Two reasons that people commit suicide are hopelessness and loneliness.
A couple of years ago, I wanted to commit suicide or quit everything I worked for and towards. I will not tell the details, but I can reveal that this was the worst feeling ever!
Insider
Nonetheless, I found the actual value of community through the love of God.
I could not give everything up because of my identity. I have been known as the one who perseveres and finds joy in everything. These characteristics influence other people around me.
As people find who they are and their purpose through communities, much of my identity is shaped around the famous Māori proverb: “He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata!” The English translation of this is “What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, the people, the people!”
Before exploring what Christian communities mean to us, let us investigate who God is and what His love represents.
God
Who is God? Some of us might say God is the powerful being, Father of Jesus and the head of the Holy Trinity.
Yes, He is the powerful being, the Father of Jesus and the head of the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Trinity is like the oneness of three divine persons—God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. As God is the head of the Trinity, He is also known as the Triune God.
Although God is the Father, He became the Son, Jesus, in the flesh and came down onto the earth to represent Him. Due to His passion for representing Himself to human beings, He even crucified Himself on the cross.
Why? He has loved them so much as God has created them (Genesis chapters 1-2).
God’s chosen people
Other than all human beings automatically becoming God’s children if they believe in Jesus, God has chosen them to be royal priests and holy nations, just like what Jesus Christ was during His earthly ministry.
Becoming a holy nation simply means to be set apart from the world to serve God.
Jesus was a holy nation as He was wholly set apart from the world to serve His Father. As Jesus received the Holy Spirit at His baptism, the Spirit remained within Him for the rest of His earthly life. His mission became His Father’s mission, which was representing His Father.
The definition of a royal priest is to be a faithful mediator between God and people.
In the Old Testament, we see that the tabernacle was the only place where specific people could worship God. There were two rooms in the tabernacle.
The first room was the Holy Place, where priests could minister before God for themselves and their community (Exodus chapter 28, verses 29-43).
The other room was the Most Holy Place, where the high priest could enter to make atonement for his community once a year (Leviticus chapter 16, verses 16-
17).
However, through the order of Melchizedek, Jesus became God’s faithful high priest.
Although there were not many stories about Melchizedek in the Bible, the writer of Hebrews writes,
This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High… First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” (Hebrews chapter 7, verses 1-2)
Since Jesus was God’s faithful high priest, He sacrificed Himself for us. From that moment on, everything began to change.
When Jesus was crucified and put to death on the cross, the tabernacle curtain was torn apart. As the tabernacle was a dwelling place for God’s presence in ancient times and now it is torn, God’s presence opens to everybody, especially those willing to believe in Jesus as their Saviour and Lord (Matthew chapter 27, verses 50-53).
Since Jesus’s sacrifice paid our death penalty, disclosed access to God’s presence for humanity and has given us eternal life, He became our righteousness and the prince of peace (2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21; John chapter 16, verses 33).
When Jesus also went to the heavenly realms and sat at God’s right hand, the Holy Spirit was poured into us as an Advocate and the Spirit of the truth (John chapter 14, verses 26-27; John chapter 16, verses 7-15).
Since Jesus received the Holy Spirit at His baptism, we need to be baptised as well. Being baptised allows us to experience God’s presence all the time through the overflowing of the Spirit.
It also enables us to be more authentic followers of Jesus. It symbolises the death of our old nature and the resurrection of our new Spirit-led nature (Romans chapter 6, verses 3-23).
Application
Pastor Grant Harris proclaimed that Melchizedek was a total outsider. He came from Canaanite instead of Israel. He also didn’t have any genealogy he can trace back to.
Although Melchizedek was not mentioned a lot in the Bible, He became a fruitful person of God through the encounter of God. Since Melchizedek became a priestly model for Jesus, He became an insider of God’s chosen people.
As God accepts all human beings, how much more could we be God’s chosen people through the power of the Holy Spirit if we begin to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour?
Kevin Park is studying at Carey Baptist College and finds that Christian-writing is his ultimate will of God and his ultimate method to build the kingdom of God. He started to become a Christian writer from 2013. Other than his writing life, Kevin desires to see that each finds everlasting satisfaction in God, the Almighty. You will be able to contact him at kevin.park1991@gmail.com. He loves to encourage others spiritually.
Kevin Park’s previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/kevin-park.html