Greg Daley

“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

The Holy Spirit tells us, through Paul, of Jesus, as the New High Priest, carrying His blood into the Holy of Holies and making eternal redemption, but before He goes in with His blood, there is a little human touch to the drama that we must not overlook.

In John 20:11-18, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, the sister of Martha, after he rose from the dead. She did not know that it was Jesus. He says to her, tenderly “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?
She thought he was the gardener. She was kind of right; He is the Husbandman of a Garden, just not the worldly type. He is the Creator, come to a garden he once gave to man to be steward of and to have dominion over until man rebelled and gave it over to another who sought to steal, kill and destroy the works of God. He came to destroy the works of the devil and restore man back into fellowship and as the rightful heir of the earth.

Ps 115:16 reminds us; “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD's; But the earth He has given to the children of men.”

She replies with great emotion "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away." How deeply Jesus’ heart must have been touched by her loyalty; He turned to her and said one word, “Mary.” It was the voice she had come to love. Isn’t it wonderful to know that he knows your name? He knows you by name and he knows everything about you, not just your name. We can have trouble remembering names but He will never forget yours.

2 Tim 2:19 says: Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His," He knows you.

Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'"

He is about to ascend to his Father and says to Mary, He is your Father too. He is my God and He is your God, as well. It’s easy to think, well isn’t God the Father of us all? He is God and Creator of all, however, the term Father denotes relationship. In John 8:44, Jesus told the Pharisees who could not hear the words of Christ that “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.”

For God to be your Father you must be born again into His Family.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
John 1:12-13

It was a voice she had come to know and love. How many times He had said, “Mary,” in their home in Bethany. How many times she had heard Him say, “Martha,” and Lazarus.” It broke over her like a flood. She turned, looked at Him, fell at His feet and whispered, “Raboni.” She probably fell on her face in worship and moved to touch His feet, so He spoke to her so tenderly, “Touch me not, I am not yet ascended to my Father.”

He had died a lamb, He had died a substitute. He arose as the Lord High Priest. The curtain was rent in the Holy of Holies from top to bottom. That meant there was no longer a high priest under the Old Covenant. The priesthood was done away. There was no Law; it had been fulfilled. No more sacrifices; the High Pries did not know it, but he had offered the Lamb of God as the great sacrifice for eternity. And then Jesus, the sacrificed lamb rose from the dead as the High Priest of the New Covenant!

And so he says to Mary, “Touch me not, I have not yet ascended to my Father.” He is saying, “I am going to take my blood into the New Holy of Holies, sprinkle it on the mercy seat just as our High Priest have been doing once a year, but mine is going to be an eternal sacrifice. I am going to complete your redemption; it is like he is saying “Mary. You do not know it, daughter, but I died for your sins, I have put them away and now I am carrying the seal of your sacrifice into Heaven to my Father.” Wow!

Heb 9:15 says, “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the First Covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

He had died for the redemption of transgressions under the first Covenant. Now these Old covenant saints, who were justified by faith, are to receive their eternal inheritance. They were promised it every time the High Priest carried blood into the Holy of Holies. That was like a promissory note and it had gone on for 1500 years. Now Jesus cashed these notes. The Old Testament saints, made righteous by faith, were redeemed. They were in Paradise waiting for Him. The thief that died on the cross was among them in Paradise. Jesus was going to keep His promise now. He said “I say unto you: today, you will be with me in Paradise.” He did not say He was going to Paradise with him, but He told him, that day, that He would be with him in Paradise. Now he is keeping His promise.

Peter sheds some light on this by writing. 1 Peter 3:18-19 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,”

You see Jesus could not preach to them until his Blood had been carried into the Holies of Holies.

The Bible tells us, in Eph 4:8-10, Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
and gave gifts to men." 9(Now this, "He ascended" — what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?

What does this mean? He went into the place where the Old Testament saints were kept in Paradise and proclaimed to them the joyful news of their redemption and He took these captives captive and He gave unto them gifts. And notice, in Acts chapter one, that a cloud received Him when He went up. Acts 1:9: Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
In scripture we have many places where clouds have prophetic meanings. For instance, at the transfiguration, while He is speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice out of the cloud spoke to them. At the return of the Lord, the Son of Man shall come in the clouds of Heaven. The Bible speaks about a great cloud of witnesses. Could the cloud, in Acts 1:9, be the Old Testament saints like Abraham, David and others, as the first-fruits of His great sacrifice?

No one on earth had yet received the benefit of His death and resurrection. No one had yet been born again. No one knew anything about it. No one, until now. As this cloud of saints went up with Jesus into Heaven in Acts 1:9 and throughout the ages from that day, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in Heaven because of His Great Blood Sacrifice! What a Savior!