INTRO
STUDY
- A very difficult theological book to read
- No known author and not clear who the readers were
- Date of writing can't be after AD70 as Hebrews still talked about the temple which was completely destroyed in AD70
- Should be written in mid AD60 because it's written Christians suffered loss of property but not yet loss of blood (Martydom)
- Earliest martydom is when Nero blamed Christians for the great fire in Rome
- It is written to Christian Jews who have not quite come out of Judaism and not quite step into Christianity. That's the problem this book is addressing
- Having one foot still in both camps
- Writer was trying to convince the Christian Jews that the finest of their judaism has to be left behind and Christ followed wholeheartedly
- This is crucial when persecution keeps increasing and the resolve to follow Christ all the way is paramount
- It's believed to be written to the Jews in Rome because Judaism is a recognized legal religion whereas Christianity is not
- Under Roman persecution, it's very easy to fall back into the "safety" of Judaism. Which means a denial of Christ
- 2 not so familiar concepts brought out
1. Hebrew concept of animal sacrifice to God which is very bloody
2. Greek concept of the physical world that is unreal but a type and shadow of the real world which is the spiritual world
- Because of believers who were made of Jews and Gentiles and also the large growth of Christians converts from the Jews, many problems arose
- The synagogue was used by the Christians for prayers because of its capacity to house so many converts
- Questions will be raised about the ongoing practice of sacrifice
- Do Gentiles have to become Jewish (proselyte) to be Christian? (Paul had to deal with this issue at 2 major council meetings and Galatians written)
- Do they have to observe Jewish laws anymore like Sabbath?
- The relationship between the OT and the NT is one of continuity and contrast
- Continuity because it's the same God who gave both the OT and NT
- Contrast because OT is the type and shadow of NT
- OT gives glimpses but NT reveals everything in clarity
- The whole concept of the Gospel hinges on a Jewish platform of doing things to come near to God
- Yet Christians need not become Jewish but would do well to appreciate the Jewish background to understand the message of the Gospel
- The contrast is brought out by 2 key words - BETTER and SON
- Jesus better than Moses/angels/Joshua/Aaron/Covenant
- IE: The Christian way is better than the Jewish way
- Why is that so because Jesus is the Son
- These people are at best servants of God but Jesus is the Son
- These other servants come and go. They point the way to God but Jesus abides forever
- So this book is an exhortation knowing Christ is the better deal
- To warn us against unbelief, disobedience, immaturity and to 'woo' us to Christ the better One
- The book often uses "Let us..." to encourage us to choose Christ and persevere in our choice
WHAT CAN WE GET OUT FROM THIS BOOK?
- Is there any relevance for us since it's target audience is the Jewish believers?
1. Hebrews tells us Religion is not better than the real Relationship with Christ
- Judaism is at best a 'good' religion that shows us to Christ
- But once we have Christ, we drop even a good religion to pursue that relationship with Him
- People need to engage the outward forms of a religious practice to make sense of the reality of God
- But once we are convicted by faith of a unshakable relationship with our invisible God, we don't need this anymore
- Faith therefore is the essence/substance of things hoped for
2. Hebrews interprets the meaning and significance of OT scriptures
- The Jewish forms of sacrifices begins to make sense as copies pointing to the real sacrifice who is Christ
- For example the OT 5 offerings : burnt/meal/peace/sin/guilt begins to make sense as all 5 can be seen offered through the sacrifice of Christ
3. Hebrews challenges us to go on to maturity
- The book challenges us not to stay as spiritual babes but to keep pursuing God in growth
- Perhaps it's even more relevant for 2nd generation Christians whose foundation was rested on their parents faith
- The challenge is to have a 1st hand relationship with Christ yourself
4. Hebrews is all about Christ
- When we keep gazing on the Person of Jesus, we anchor ourselves on solid ground
- Nothing else matters before Christ.
- This book is therefore sometimes labelled as the 5th Gospel
- The 4 Gospels talked about Jesus' ministry here on earth. Hebrews is Jesus' ministry up in Heaven
- We see Jesus in Hebrews as the High Priest. In other books, He is emphasized as our Saviour/King/Lord....
- The Priest is the advocate between man and God. We let the priest do the job of bringing us to God
- Hebrews uplifts Christ as the Great High Priest
STUDY
- A very difficult theological book to read
- No known author and not clear who the readers were
- Date of writing can't be after AD70 as Hebrews still talked about the temple which was completely destroyed in AD70
- Should be written in mid AD60 because it's written Christians suffered loss of property but not yet loss of blood (Martydom)
- Earliest martydom is when Nero blamed Christians for the great fire in Rome
- It is written to Christian Jews who have not quite come out of Judaism and not quite step into Christianity. That's the problem this book is addressing
- Having one foot still in both camps
- Writer was trying to convince the Christian Jews that the finest of their judaism has to be left behind and Christ followed wholeheartedly
- This is crucial when persecution keeps increasing and the resolve to follow Christ all the way is paramount
- It's believed to be written to the Jews in Rome because Judaism is a recognized legal religion whereas Christianity is not
- Under Roman persecution, it's very easy to fall back into the "safety" of Judaism. Which means a denial of Christ
- 2 not so familiar concepts brought out
1. Hebrew concept of animal sacrifice to God which is very bloody
2. Greek concept of the physical world that is unreal but a type and shadow of the real world which is the spiritual world
- Because of believers who were made of Jews and Gentiles and also the large growth of Christians converts from the Jews, many problems arose
- The synagogue was used by the Christians for prayers because of its capacity to house so many converts
- Questions will be raised about the ongoing practice of sacrifice
- Do Gentiles have to become Jewish (proselyte) to be Christian? (Paul had to deal with this issue at 2 major council meetings and Galatians written)
- Do they have to observe Jewish laws anymore like Sabbath?
- The relationship between the OT and the NT is one of continuity and contrast
- Continuity because it's the same God who gave both the OT and NT
- Contrast because OT is the type and shadow of NT
- OT gives glimpses but NT reveals everything in clarity
- The whole concept of the Gospel hinges on a Jewish platform of doing things to come near to God
- Yet Christians need not become Jewish but would do well to appreciate the Jewish background to understand the message of the Gospel
- The contrast is brought out by 2 key words - BETTER and SON
- Jesus better than Moses/angels/Joshua/Aaron/Covenant
- IE: The Christian way is better than the Jewish way
- Why is that so because Jesus is the Son
- These people are at best servants of God but Jesus is the Son
- These other servants come and go. They point the way to God but Jesus abides forever
- So this book is an exhortation knowing Christ is the better deal
- To warn us against unbelief, disobedience, immaturity and to 'woo' us to Christ the better One
- The book often uses "Let us..." to encourage us to choose Christ and persevere in our choice
WHAT CAN WE GET OUT FROM THIS BOOK?
- Is there any relevance for us since it's target audience is the Jewish believers?
1. Hebrews tells us Religion is not better than the real Relationship with Christ
- Judaism is at best a 'good' religion that shows us to Christ
- But once we have Christ, we drop even a good religion to pursue that relationship with Him
- People need to engage the outward forms of a religious practice to make sense of the reality of God
- But once we are convicted by faith of a unshakable relationship with our invisible God, we don't need this anymore
- Faith therefore is the essence/substance of things hoped for
2. Hebrews interprets the meaning and significance of OT scriptures
- The Jewish forms of sacrifices begins to make sense as copies pointing to the real sacrifice who is Christ
- For example the OT 5 offerings : burnt/meal/peace/sin/guilt begins to make sense as all 5 can be seen offered through the sacrifice of Christ
3. Hebrews challenges us to go on to maturity
- The book challenges us not to stay as spiritual babes but to keep pursuing God in growth
- Perhaps it's even more relevant for 2nd generation Christians whose foundation was rested on their parents faith
- The challenge is to have a 1st hand relationship with Christ yourself
4. Hebrews is all about Christ
- When we keep gazing on the Person of Jesus, we anchor ourselves on solid ground
- Nothing else matters before Christ.
- This book is therefore sometimes labelled as the 5th Gospel
- The 4 Gospels talked about Jesus' ministry here on earth. Hebrews is Jesus' ministry up in Heaven
- We see Jesus in Hebrews as the High Priest. In other books, He is emphasized as our Saviour/King/Lord....
- The Priest is the advocate between man and God. We let the priest do the job of bringing us to God
- Hebrews uplifts Christ as the Great High Priest
SCRIPTURES: Heb 1:1-3
STUDY
- The book was addressed to Jewish believers who may have the struggle to go back to Judaism as the perks may be better
- Judaism is a recognized legal religion by the Romans whereas Christianity is illegal
- Still worshipping in the Synagogue which was converted to worship grounds for these Jewish believers, the temptation to become secret believers was even greater
- It's so easy to fall away and go back to their old religion quite literally
v1
- How was God known? When He speaks to us
- And God wants to be known. He wants to speak to us and He wants us to listen
- The consistent thing is that God spoke from the start to the end OT and NT
- The contrast is that He spoke through prophets in OT and through Jesus in NT
- God has chosen to speak to only a few individuals and instruct these to relay His message to others
- God has choosen to speak to one race/nation through these few individuals call prophets - Israel (to the envy of many nations)
- And these prophets often paid a huge price for being God's mouthpiece and not shrink from this role
- Isaiah was put into a tree trunk and sawn asunder - Hebrews
- The OT is the record of the message of God from the first prophet to the last beginning from the book of Moses to Malachi
AT MANY TIMES AND VARIOUS WAYS
- We have to note that when God speaks through the prophets, the personality of the prophets also came through inside the message
- God uses a person to deliver His words without negating the person's character or removing his personal insights.
- And yet His words are still fully inspired and completely to be trusted
- That's why you can recognized the writings of certain people in the Bible eg Paul/Peter because the flair is retained
- It's to be appreciated that each individual prophet didn't have the full revelation of God
- God's full picture came in fragments that each prophet held and when put together (ie the whole OT), we get a complete picture
- Therefore it's not so easy to see the full picture unless you diligent get to know the whole OT and the messages of the prophets
BUT IN THESE LAST DAYS
- God has spoken in completion and finality through Jesus. That's what it means in the last days
- God has given us the complete picture in the OT and NT. There isn't going to be new revelation
- The Bible warns of a curse of whoever who takes away or adds on to it
- Noticed it says God spoke through the prophets but in these last days He has spoken to us through the Son
- We look at the whole complete picture that points to His Son Jesus and that's enough
- Jesus is superior. He created the universe and is heir of all things
- The created thing that Jesus was once on was in fact held together by Him
- 2 things are said about Jesus here
1. Radiating God's Glory
- Jesus shines carrying the fullness of God's glory
- His blinding glory was recounted in 2 instances
1) His transfiguration at a mountain witnessed by Peter, James and John
2) When he revealed himself to Saul of Tarsus and His glorious presence blinded him. Brighter than the midday sun
2. Exact representation of God
- You see God when you look at Jesus
- After 3 years, Philip still didn't understand this when he asked Jesus to show him the Father
- Jesus had provided purification for our sins
- Only He can do that
- He can because He was the only perfect being who lives and therefore is the perfect atoning sacrifice for sinful man
- While OT priest year after year sought such purification through the sacrifice of thousands of bulls, Jesus did it once with His life. Once is enough
- The OT priest remained standing because his work was never really complete. The purification was not permanent
- Jesus finished the purification work completely and there He sat down
- So Jesus was our perfect Savior at the Cross
- Jesus sat at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven
- He's ruling and reigning and controlling all things from that seated position
- There's nothing more we need than Jesus. God has spoken His last word to direct us to Jesus
- Through these verses we see Jesus as prophet (God spoke through His Son), priest (made complete purification for us), king (ruling not in His seated position)
STUDY
- The book was addressed to Jewish believers who may have the struggle to go back to Judaism as the perks may be better
- Judaism is a recognized legal religion by the Romans whereas Christianity is illegal
- Still worshipping in the Synagogue which was converted to worship grounds for these Jewish believers, the temptation to become secret believers was even greater
- It's so easy to fall away and go back to their old religion quite literally
v1
- How was God known? When He speaks to us
- And God wants to be known. He wants to speak to us and He wants us to listen
- The consistent thing is that God spoke from the start to the end OT and NT
- The contrast is that He spoke through prophets in OT and through Jesus in NT
- God has chosen to speak to only a few individuals and instruct these to relay His message to others
- God has choosen to speak to one race/nation through these few individuals call prophets - Israel (to the envy of many nations)
- And these prophets often paid a huge price for being God's mouthpiece and not shrink from this role
- Isaiah was put into a tree trunk and sawn asunder - Hebrews
- The OT is the record of the message of God from the first prophet to the last beginning from the book of Moses to Malachi
AT MANY TIMES AND VARIOUS WAYS
- We have to note that when God speaks through the prophets, the personality of the prophets also came through inside the message
- God uses a person to deliver His words without negating the person's character or removing his personal insights.
- And yet His words are still fully inspired and completely to be trusted
- That's why you can recognized the writings of certain people in the Bible eg Paul/Peter because the flair is retained
- It's to be appreciated that each individual prophet didn't have the full revelation of God
- God's full picture came in fragments that each prophet held and when put together (ie the whole OT), we get a complete picture
- Therefore it's not so easy to see the full picture unless you diligent get to know the whole OT and the messages of the prophets
BUT IN THESE LAST DAYS
- God has spoken in completion and finality through Jesus. That's what it means in the last days
- God has given us the complete picture in the OT and NT. There isn't going to be new revelation
- The Bible warns of a curse of whoever who takes away or adds on to it
- Noticed it says God spoke through the prophets but in these last days He has spoken to us through the Son
- We look at the whole complete picture that points to His Son Jesus and that's enough
- Jesus is superior. He created the universe and is heir of all things
- The created thing that Jesus was once on was in fact held together by Him
- 2 things are said about Jesus here
1. Radiating God's Glory
- Jesus shines carrying the fullness of God's glory
- His blinding glory was recounted in 2 instances
1) His transfiguration at a mountain witnessed by Peter, James and John
2) When he revealed himself to Saul of Tarsus and His glorious presence blinded him. Brighter than the midday sun
2. Exact representation of God
- You see God when you look at Jesus
- After 3 years, Philip still didn't understand this when he asked Jesus to show him the Father
- Jesus had provided purification for our sins
- Only He can do that
- He can because He was the only perfect being who lives and therefore is the perfect atoning sacrifice for sinful man
- While OT priest year after year sought such purification through the sacrifice of thousands of bulls, Jesus did it once with His life. Once is enough
- The OT priest remained standing because his work was never really complete. The purification was not permanent
- Jesus finished the purification work completely and there He sat down
- So Jesus was our perfect Savior at the Cross
- Jesus sat at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven
- He's ruling and reigning and controlling all things from that seated position
- There's nothing more we need than Jesus. God has spoken His last word to direct us to Jesus
- Through these verses we see Jesus as prophet (God spoke through His Son), priest (made complete purification for us), king (ruling not in His seated position)
SCRIPTURES: Heb 1:4 - 14
STUDY
- The mention of angels is in the Bible, made by God, positioned higher than man but lower than God, superior in intelligence/power/might
- Angels are real. They manifest in unknown ways.
- The Jews are taught a lot about angels and very aware of their presence/power/purpose as ministers of worship unto God
- Eg: Isaiah's vision Isa 6
- The Jews see angels as the go-between, mediator to God. That's what Jews see their function is
- When God gave the 10 commandments, it's to angels, then to Moses and Moses passed to Israel
- All throughout OT, we see the tangible activities of angels
- In the NT, you see angelic activities too. Jesus at His temptation, resurrection, Jesus could have commanded 10000 of them at His bidding
- Acts, prison doors open, revelation is full of them
- Now, we got Jesus who is better than angels
- Angels are often translated as messengers who bring a message to us. But now we have Jesus
- We now pray through Jesus who is our go-between and not angels which are what Jews were accustomed to
Ref Diagram
- OT : God brings His message in bits and pieces to angels who in turn deliver to prophets then to men
- NT : Jesus brings the direct complete message to men as He is the Son and the living Word in flesh
- Jesus is not seated among the angels. He is higher than them, seated at the right hand of the Father
- Angels have limited access to God. Jesus who is better has full access because He's Son
- Hebrew author made contrasts between Jesus and angels that showed Jesus is more superior
- The first few shows who Jesus and angels are
1) Jesus is THE Son
2) God is His Father v5
3) Angels worshipped Jesus and not the other way round v6
4) Angels were made/created by God to be servants/ministers v7 but not Jesus. Jesus stood already existing before creation
- The next few shows what is done. v8-9
1) Jesus is both eligible and capable to REIGN as King
- He is eligible because He is the Son and He is capable because He loves righteousness and hated wickedness
- You are not truly a good person unless you embrace both loving righteousness and hating evil. Many only love goodness
- Many don't hate what's wrong. Meaning they continue to do what God hates (Eg: Piracy)
- Jesus embraced both therefore the Sceptor of the Kingdom was given to Him. He reigns as King today
- This was never said of any angel
2) v10-12 In the opening chapter, we see Jesus CREATED the heavens and the earth
- This world will perish, wear out and changed (Eg: The stars/sun will burn out)
- Jesus remains. No angel is like that
3) Jesus was given the right hand seat and His enemies made His footstool (IE: Enemies will be defeated)
- Egyptian tomb shows a footstool for a throne painted with faces of all the kings that man had conquered
- Then it's mentioned that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve believers
- Angels actually rejoice when sinners repent so that service to them begins (Luke 15:10)
- That's why it's such a privilege and good thing to become believers
- Angels start to serve us. If not, they are going to be instruments of service to God and a ministry of judgement to us
STUDY
- The mention of angels is in the Bible, made by God, positioned higher than man but lower than God, superior in intelligence/power/might
- Angels are real. They manifest in unknown ways.
- The Jews are taught a lot about angels and very aware of their presence/power/purpose as ministers of worship unto God
- Eg: Isaiah's vision Isa 6
- The Jews see angels as the go-between, mediator to God. That's what Jews see their function is
- When God gave the 10 commandments, it's to angels, then to Moses and Moses passed to Israel
- All throughout OT, we see the tangible activities of angels
- In the NT, you see angelic activities too. Jesus at His temptation, resurrection, Jesus could have commanded 10000 of them at His bidding
- Acts, prison doors open, revelation is full of them
- Now, we got Jesus who is better than angels
- Angels are often translated as messengers who bring a message to us. But now we have Jesus
- We now pray through Jesus who is our go-between and not angels which are what Jews were accustomed to
Ref Diagram
- OT : God brings His message in bits and pieces to angels who in turn deliver to prophets then to men
- NT : Jesus brings the direct complete message to men as He is the Son and the living Word in flesh
- Jesus is not seated among the angels. He is higher than them, seated at the right hand of the Father
- Angels have limited access to God. Jesus who is better has full access because He's Son
- Hebrew author made contrasts between Jesus and angels that showed Jesus is more superior
- The first few shows who Jesus and angels are
1) Jesus is THE Son
2) God is His Father v5
3) Angels worshipped Jesus and not the other way round v6
4) Angels were made/created by God to be servants/ministers v7 but not Jesus. Jesus stood already existing before creation
- The next few shows what is done. v8-9
1) Jesus is both eligible and capable to REIGN as King
- He is eligible because He is the Son and He is capable because He loves righteousness and hated wickedness
- You are not truly a good person unless you embrace both loving righteousness and hating evil. Many only love goodness
- Many don't hate what's wrong. Meaning they continue to do what God hates (Eg: Piracy)
- Jesus embraced both therefore the Sceptor of the Kingdom was given to Him. He reigns as King today
- This was never said of any angel
2) v10-12 In the opening chapter, we see Jesus CREATED the heavens and the earth
- This world will perish, wear out and changed (Eg: The stars/sun will burn out)
- Jesus remains. No angel is like that
3) Jesus was given the right hand seat and His enemies made His footstool (IE: Enemies will be defeated)
- Egyptian tomb shows a footstool for a throne painted with faces of all the kings that man had conquered
- Then it's mentioned that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve believers
- Angels actually rejoice when sinners repent so that service to them begins (Luke 15:10)
- That's why it's such a privilege and good thing to become believers
- Angels start to serve us. If not, they are going to be instruments of service to God and a ministry of judgement to us
SCRIPTURES: Heb 2:1-18
STUDY
- The OT people heard God's message through angels and prophets
- The NT (which is us too) heard it first hand through our Lord Jesus and also the apostles who was with Jesus
- And this message was with sign and wonders which became a double testimony
- The only thing for you to be damned is to ignore this great message. Nothing else
- Most people just drift away (a nautical term) where they are not anchored to the truth. Meaning they did not respond to it
- Most people just drift away by their apathy, neglect and indifference. And God warns us against that
- If Jesus is greater than the prophets and angels, and people experienced dire consequences for ignoring the message of the angels/propohets, how much greater a disaster if we ignore Jesus' message
- We pay attention to different departments of our life - health, work, family, etc because we know what happens when there's neglect to these
- But many had neglected the department of our spiritual life. It will not turn out alright if we neglect/ignore
- God didn't place angels to rule the world. He placed man though angels was placed a little higher than them
- The world is subject under humans. We see the brilliance of man in scientific advancement and technological discoveries
- We see the world increasing in knowledge. A constant attempt to make world a better place through these discoveries but yet not quite
- But here we see THE Son of Man Jesus who is in charge of the world. He truly was placed a little lower than the angels while He was on earth in the form of a man
- But Jesus was able to subject the earth under him. Look at his miracles that defy nature - walk on water, calm the storm, water into wine, etc
- So we see man made in charge of the world not angels. We see Jesus the ultimate Son of Man in charge of it all
- We see him on earth crowned with glory because He suffer death that He might taste death for us. v9
- We see many sons of glory becoming believers as a result to share in this mandate.
- v10 we are not here for ourselves, we are here for God to bring Him glory
- He brought us to glory meaning saving us. We now are saved to live for His Glory
- Christ became fully man and could understand us and our temptations because He went through humanity
- And therefore He has become a faithful/merciful high priest (suggesting previous human high priest may not have these qualities)
- He breaks the power of sin and death and He faithfully/mercifully bring us to God through His atonement
- What a Savior we have!!!
STUDY
- The OT people heard God's message through angels and prophets
- The NT (which is us too) heard it first hand through our Lord Jesus and also the apostles who was with Jesus
- And this message was with sign and wonders which became a double testimony
- The only thing for you to be damned is to ignore this great message. Nothing else
- Most people just drift away (a nautical term) where they are not anchored to the truth. Meaning they did not respond to it
- Most people just drift away by their apathy, neglect and indifference. And God warns us against that
- If Jesus is greater than the prophets and angels, and people experienced dire consequences for ignoring the message of the angels/propohets, how much greater a disaster if we ignore Jesus' message
- We pay attention to different departments of our life - health, work, family, etc because we know what happens when there's neglect to these
- But many had neglected the department of our spiritual life. It will not turn out alright if we neglect/ignore
- God didn't place angels to rule the world. He placed man though angels was placed a little higher than them
- The world is subject under humans. We see the brilliance of man in scientific advancement and technological discoveries
- We see the world increasing in knowledge. A constant attempt to make world a better place through these discoveries but yet not quite
- But here we see THE Son of Man Jesus who is in charge of the world. He truly was placed a little lower than the angels while He was on earth in the form of a man
- But Jesus was able to subject the earth under him. Look at his miracles that defy nature - walk on water, calm the storm, water into wine, etc
- So we see man made in charge of the world not angels. We see Jesus the ultimate Son of Man in charge of it all
- We see him on earth crowned with glory because He suffer death that He might taste death for us. v9
- We see many sons of glory becoming believers as a result to share in this mandate.
- v10 we are not here for ourselves, we are here for God to bring Him glory
- He brought us to glory meaning saving us. We now are saved to live for His Glory
- Christ became fully man and could understand us and our temptations because He went through humanity
- And therefore He has become a faithful/merciful high priest (suggesting previous human high priest may not have these qualities)
- He breaks the power of sin and death and He faithfully/mercifully bring us to God through His atonement
- What a Savior we have!!!
SCRIPTURES : Heb 3:1-4:13
STUDY
- Jesus is now compared with 2 OT heros of faith, Moses and Joshua and Jesus is better
- Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt - Ch3 Joshua led them into the Promised land Canaan - Ch4
- Jesus both brought us out from the kingdom of darkness of slavery to the promised land of spiritual inheritance
- Believers are called holy brethen (v1) while Jews are addressed just brethren
- That means believers are placed above Jews for they are not saints
- Jews had a calling from God but an earthly one. One called to possess a land
- Believers have a heavenly calling to a heavenly country to be subject to an eternal King when His Kingdom finally comes
- So we see 2 adjectives "holy", "heavenly" that sets us up in a much better position as NT believers
- We are told to 'consider' Christ not just confess Him
- To consider is to pay such deep attention that you get the message or hidden meaning behind
- When Jesus used the word to "consider" like consider the lilies, we are to contemplate till we get His meaning of such illustration
- Do we really take time to consider Christ and His words?
- Author wants us to consider Christ as the Apostle and High Priest
- Apostle means sent one. - As the Father sent me, so I sent you
- Jesus is the Sent One from heaven to earth, a missionary to bring a message to humanity
- He obeyed the call to be sent out from his luxurious place of glory as the Son
- He was sent to bring people unto rest whom both Moses and Joshua failed but He succeeded
- Judaism doesn't bring people to rest but labor and weariness. Christianity brings rest because the message is to stop striving and start surrendering
- Moses was ultra extremely faithful. When no one was, Moses kept on. He was faithful to God and faithful to His people
- One time, he said blot me out if God you would to blot out your people
- Jesus was also faithful. In loving His people, He loved them to the end.
- Faithfulness to your people is vital in leadership
- But Jesus is better than Moses.
- Moses was faithful IN God's house as a servant. v5
- Jesus was faithful OVER His own house He built for Himself as the Son. v6
- A servant and a Son who is the Owner is different. You can see it
- Who is this house? God's house to Moses are the people of Israel and Moses is IN the house. He's part of them
- God's house to Jesus is the Body of Christ - us. And He is OVER us. He built us and He lives IN us too
- Moses failed to build a restful house. Although Moses was faithful, his house was full of faithless ones. There was tension, no rest.
- There was no rest because these faithless ones had no faith. They had unbelief. v19
- Similarly, we as the house need to have faith in Christ
- The problem is that the Israelites had hardened their hearts in this journey
- The heart gets harder and harder to a same message if not accepted at the start and was kept delivered to them like the Gospel
- Illustration : A skin kept being rubbed gets harder and harder
- Author made reference to 2 events in Israel's history to show the hardening of hearts
- First at Massah (provocation) and second at Meribah (temptation)
- So Moses called the people to rest but the people rebelled instead, complaining why they were brought out of Egypt
- v7, interesting to note the word "Today"
- And the Holy Spirit says (present continuous tense) today. Meaning we have to make a choice each day
- How you decide today determine whether your heart continues to be harden or not
- v16: Writer is talking about the Jews who got out of Egypt and slavery
- It parallels us Christians who got out of our spiritual Egypt of slavery
- It's a warning that our hearts can get hardened by unbelief and each day is critical in our perseverance to believe
- v13: And we got to help one another by encouraging one another
Chapter 4
- Moses didn't get any of those who left Egypt into the promise land except Joshua and Caleb
- Joshua took those who were born in the wilderness
- But they still didn't enter into rest up even until today. Israel is still in turmoil
- Rest is not a physical place.
- Entering into rest is to enter into the land of promises to lay hold of it rather than the promise land and never believe the promises
- ILL: 12 spies brought grapes back from spying trip to Canaan
- The 10 saw giants while the other 2 saw God's promises and ready to claim it believing God is with them
- Unfortunately, they turn around and continue to stay in their wilderness
- Lesson : There are 2 kinds of Christians
1) Carnal Christians who are being led in the wilderness
2) Spiritual Christians who are led in the promised land
- Carnal Christians are miserable. Not fulling living on the promises of God
- God also rested from His work of creating the world. And writer used this to tell the Jews that they need to rest too
- v10: The Jews need to rest from their WORKS in order to enter into God's rest (Meaning - Trusting Him to bring us in rather than Striving to enter)
- v12: How then do we enter into that rest? By knowing what the promises of rest is through the Word
- The Word has the power to completely reorder the insides of us (cutting us up and turning insides all over)
- POINT: Getting Israel out of Egypt is easier than getting the Egypt out of Israel
- We need the Word and the Spirit for the renewing of the mind to walking victoriously in the promises of God
STUDY
- Jesus is now compared with 2 OT heros of faith, Moses and Joshua and Jesus is better
- Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt - Ch3 Joshua led them into the Promised land Canaan - Ch4
- Jesus both brought us out from the kingdom of darkness of slavery to the promised land of spiritual inheritance
- Believers are called holy brethen (v1) while Jews are addressed just brethren
- That means believers are placed above Jews for they are not saints
- Jews had a calling from God but an earthly one. One called to possess a land
- Believers have a heavenly calling to a heavenly country to be subject to an eternal King when His Kingdom finally comes
- So we see 2 adjectives "holy", "heavenly" that sets us up in a much better position as NT believers
- We are told to 'consider' Christ not just confess Him
- To consider is to pay such deep attention that you get the message or hidden meaning behind
- When Jesus used the word to "consider" like consider the lilies, we are to contemplate till we get His meaning of such illustration
- Do we really take time to consider Christ and His words?
- Author wants us to consider Christ as the Apostle and High Priest
- Apostle means sent one. - As the Father sent me, so I sent you
- Jesus is the Sent One from heaven to earth, a missionary to bring a message to humanity
- He obeyed the call to be sent out from his luxurious place of glory as the Son
- He was sent to bring people unto rest whom both Moses and Joshua failed but He succeeded
- Judaism doesn't bring people to rest but labor and weariness. Christianity brings rest because the message is to stop striving and start surrendering
- Moses was ultra extremely faithful. When no one was, Moses kept on. He was faithful to God and faithful to His people
- One time, he said blot me out if God you would to blot out your people
- Jesus was also faithful. In loving His people, He loved them to the end.
- Faithfulness to your people is vital in leadership
- But Jesus is better than Moses.
- Moses was faithful IN God's house as a servant. v5
- Jesus was faithful OVER His own house He built for Himself as the Son. v6
- A servant and a Son who is the Owner is different. You can see it
- Who is this house? God's house to Moses are the people of Israel and Moses is IN the house. He's part of them
- God's house to Jesus is the Body of Christ - us. And He is OVER us. He built us and He lives IN us too
- Moses failed to build a restful house. Although Moses was faithful, his house was full of faithless ones. There was tension, no rest.
- There was no rest because these faithless ones had no faith. They had unbelief. v19
- Similarly, we as the house need to have faith in Christ
- The problem is that the Israelites had hardened their hearts in this journey
- The heart gets harder and harder to a same message if not accepted at the start and was kept delivered to them like the Gospel
- Illustration : A skin kept being rubbed gets harder and harder
- Author made reference to 2 events in Israel's history to show the hardening of hearts
- First at Massah (provocation) and second at Meribah (temptation)
- So Moses called the people to rest but the people rebelled instead, complaining why they were brought out of Egypt
- v7, interesting to note the word "Today"
- And the Holy Spirit says (present continuous tense) today. Meaning we have to make a choice each day
- How you decide today determine whether your heart continues to be harden or not
- v16: Writer is talking about the Jews who got out of Egypt and slavery
- It parallels us Christians who got out of our spiritual Egypt of slavery
- It's a warning that our hearts can get hardened by unbelief and each day is critical in our perseverance to believe
- v13: And we got to help one another by encouraging one another
Chapter 4
- Moses didn't get any of those who left Egypt into the promise land except Joshua and Caleb
- Joshua took those who were born in the wilderness
- But they still didn't enter into rest up even until today. Israel is still in turmoil
- Rest is not a physical place.
- Entering into rest is to enter into the land of promises to lay hold of it rather than the promise land and never believe the promises
- ILL: 12 spies brought grapes back from spying trip to Canaan
- The 10 saw giants while the other 2 saw God's promises and ready to claim it believing God is with them
- Unfortunately, they turn around and continue to stay in their wilderness
- Lesson : There are 2 kinds of Christians
1) Carnal Christians who are being led in the wilderness
2) Spiritual Christians who are led in the promised land
- Carnal Christians are miserable. Not fulling living on the promises of God
- God also rested from His work of creating the world. And writer used this to tell the Jews that they need to rest too
- v10: The Jews need to rest from their WORKS in order to enter into God's rest (Meaning - Trusting Him to bring us in rather than Striving to enter)
- v12: How then do we enter into that rest? By knowing what the promises of rest is through the Word
- The Word has the power to completely reorder the insides of us (cutting us up and turning insides all over)
- POINT: Getting Israel out of Egypt is easier than getting the Egypt out of Israel
- We need the Word and the Spirit for the renewing of the mind to walking victoriously in the promises of God
SCRIPTURES: Heb 4:14 - 5:14
STUDY
- The writer is teaching the Jewish believers that Jesus the Messiah is better than their High Priest
- Jesus was referred to as our High Priest
- The role of the priest was to bring man to God. He first had to get near to God by doing the necessary stipulated by God
- We are not fit to go to God for we are sinners
v4:13-5:11
- Jesus is the Great High Priest and He fully qualifies to be Mens' mediator because He went through full humanity even as the Son of God
1. He was tempted just like us v4:13
- v4:15 : In every way. It doesn't mean that Jesus had been tempted with all the same temptations as us neither have we been tempted the same way
- It means Jesus went through the same feeling of being pressured in temptation by the devil at his most sensitive point. And he understands this same feeling that we go through when we face the pressure at our most sensitive point. (Illustration : Each armour piece has weak points)
- Next time when we are tempted, run to Jesus for strength for He understands. He'll say, "I didn't yield when I'm tempted. I'll help you to"
- So in face of temptation, boldly come to throne of grace to find mercy. (That's our assurance and confidence!) v16
2. He was appointed to this role v5:1
- Every high priest is selected to this role to offer sacrifices for our sins of Israel.
- Aaron was the first appointed high priest
- Both Jesus and Aaron were selected by God but Aaron was a servant, Jesus the Son. v5
- Both offered sacrifices but Aaron had to offer for his own sins first, Jesus didn't have to
> The problem with the high priest who is also a sinner is that he can be sympathetic/lenient over those who sins
3. He suffered in order to bring us to God v5:7-10
- Jesus suffered and learnt obedience
- Learning to obey means that you have virtue. Virtue is doing the right thing in the face of temptation to do the wrong thing
- So shielding a child from temptation is not the solution (Ban/Abstinence). Building Godly conviction and developing character is
- Jesus learn to submit to His Father. And learnt it the hard way in the face of extreme temptation (sweat blood over his brows)
STUDY
- The writer is teaching the Jewish believers that Jesus the Messiah is better than their High Priest
- Jesus was referred to as our High Priest
- The role of the priest was to bring man to God. He first had to get near to God by doing the necessary stipulated by God
- We are not fit to go to God for we are sinners
v4:13-5:11
- Jesus is the Great High Priest and He fully qualifies to be Mens' mediator because He went through full humanity even as the Son of God
1. He was tempted just like us v4:13
- v4:15 : In every way. It doesn't mean that Jesus had been tempted with all the same temptations as us neither have we been tempted the same way
- It means Jesus went through the same feeling of being pressured in temptation by the devil at his most sensitive point. And he understands this same feeling that we go through when we face the pressure at our most sensitive point. (Illustration : Each armour piece has weak points)
- Next time when we are tempted, run to Jesus for strength for He understands. He'll say, "I didn't yield when I'm tempted. I'll help you to"
- So in face of temptation, boldly come to throne of grace to find mercy. (That's our assurance and confidence!) v16
2. He was appointed to this role v5:1
- Every high priest is selected to this role to offer sacrifices for our sins of Israel.
- Aaron was the first appointed high priest
- Both Jesus and Aaron were selected by God but Aaron was a servant, Jesus the Son. v5
- Both offered sacrifices but Aaron had to offer for his own sins first, Jesus didn't have to
> The problem with the high priest who is also a sinner is that he can be sympathetic/lenient over those who sins
3. He suffered in order to bring us to God v5:7-10
- Jesus suffered and learnt obedience
- Learning to obey means that you have virtue. Virtue is doing the right thing in the face of temptation to do the wrong thing
- So shielding a child from temptation is not the solution (Ban/Abstinence). Building Godly conviction and developing character is
- Jesus learn to submit to His Father. And learnt it the hard way in the face of extreme temptation (sweat blood over his brows)
SCRIPTURES : Heb 6
STUDY
- The Jewish Christians should be moving on from the basic foundations of their Jewish anchors of faith that don't lead them to Christ. v1-3
- v4-6 : Those who were presented the Gospel that includes the manifest reality of it like the Spirit's power, etc and had rejected it in unbelief cannot be brought back to the place of repentance (Metanoia - change of mind in decisions/actions) because their minds already made up.
- They are as if being brought back to the scene of the Jews shouting to crucify Christ. And they were liken to be among those.
v9-12
- But author also at this point reminded the Jewish Christians that they have a better deal of obtaining salvation rather than fulfilling the law
- He encouraged them to keep on doing their good works though and not forsake them too, not for obtaining salvation
- But doing them because God will remember them. And do them in full hope of their assurance in Christ as they placed their faith in Him
- For in persevering in faith in Christ and not in their works, they will inherit the promise of salvation
v13-20
- They are reminded through the example of Abraham that God will fulfill his promise for 2 reasons
- God cannot and will not lie
- Our hope has already entered into the Holies of holies because Jesus entered on our behalf
STUDY
- The Jewish Christians should be moving on from the basic foundations of their Jewish anchors of faith that don't lead them to Christ. v1-3
- v4-6 : Those who were presented the Gospel that includes the manifest reality of it like the Spirit's power, etc and had rejected it in unbelief cannot be brought back to the place of repentance (Metanoia - change of mind in decisions/actions) because their minds already made up.
- They are as if being brought back to the scene of the Jews shouting to crucify Christ. And they were liken to be among those.
v9-12
- But author also at this point reminded the Jewish Christians that they have a better deal of obtaining salvation rather than fulfilling the law
- He encouraged them to keep on doing their good works though and not forsake them too, not for obtaining salvation
- But doing them because God will remember them. And do them in full hope of their assurance in Christ as they placed their faith in Him
- For in persevering in faith in Christ and not in their works, they will inherit the promise of salvation
v13-20
- They are reminded through the example of Abraham that God will fulfill his promise for 2 reasons
- God cannot and will not lie
- Our hope has already entered into the Holies of holies because Jesus entered on our behalf
SCRIPTURES: Heb 7:1-28
STUDY
- A priest (Latin pontifex ==> Pontificate = bridge builder) is a bridge between God and man
- Jesus Christ is the perfect priest for us and we need no other
- To understand priesthood, the writer brought us back to the original pattern which is earlier than the Aaronic priesthood set by the law of Moses
- The priesthood established from Moses onwards only ministered by Jews and for Jews only
- The first priesthood was not a Jew
v1-3
- Melchizedek was both King of Jerusalem and Priest over it. v1
- Jerusalem was originally ruled by a gentile king who served both gentiles and jews (New Jerusalem will be a place of Gentiles and Jews)
- Melchizedek was both able to lead his people politically and spiritually. Jesus was parallel to this office.
- He worshipped THE God most High. History of humanity always traced back to the worship of 1 God and not polytheistic
- His name Melchizedek - Melchi = King, Zedek = Righteousness. Jerusalem = City of Peace
- The order is always this. You only have a city of peace when you have a King of Righteousness ruling it
- Our heart can only have peace when Jesus rules over it
v11-19
- Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek with no beginning and end unlike the Levitical line of priesthood
- He doesn't depend on biological genealogy and is priest forever
- Melchizedek blessed Abraham as Abraham gave his tenth to him after the war.
- This establishes Melchizedek's position as greater one blessing the lesser
- And Jesus is the greater one even over the Father of the Jews Abraham. v7
- The Levitical priesthood under Aaron was less than perfect. In fact they failed terribly
- God changed the system to list a priest not from Levi tribe but Melchizedek, a tribe of Judah that never produces priests
- And Jesus is from Judah. But that's not the most critical. Jesus was chosen because of His ultimate destiny of living forever as priest for us
- The Levitical priesthood failed to build a bridge from man to God. Can't quite cut it
- v18: We have a better hope for Jesus our High Priest is the bridge builder
- Jesus has the perfect priesthood in 3 ways
1. Oath of His priesthood - God sworn Jesus in as the Priest forever and God doesn't change His mind. v21
2. Office of His priesthood - Other priests died and couldn't continue to serve but Jesus lives forever in this office to intercede for us. v23-25
3. Offering of His priesthood - Jesus became that perfect unblemished sacrifice Himself as He offered Himself that sealed the atonement forever. v26-28
STUDY
- A priest (Latin pontifex ==> Pontificate = bridge builder) is a bridge between God and man
- Jesus Christ is the perfect priest for us and we need no other
- To understand priesthood, the writer brought us back to the original pattern which is earlier than the Aaronic priesthood set by the law of Moses
- The priesthood established from Moses onwards only ministered by Jews and for Jews only
- The first priesthood was not a Jew
v1-3
- Melchizedek was both King of Jerusalem and Priest over it. v1
- Jerusalem was originally ruled by a gentile king who served both gentiles and jews (New Jerusalem will be a place of Gentiles and Jews)
- Melchizedek was both able to lead his people politically and spiritually. Jesus was parallel to this office.
- He worshipped THE God most High. History of humanity always traced back to the worship of 1 God and not polytheistic
- His name Melchizedek - Melchi = King, Zedek = Righteousness. Jerusalem = City of Peace
- The order is always this. You only have a city of peace when you have a King of Righteousness ruling it
- Our heart can only have peace when Jesus rules over it
v11-19
- Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek with no beginning and end unlike the Levitical line of priesthood
- He doesn't depend on biological genealogy and is priest forever
- Melchizedek blessed Abraham as Abraham gave his tenth to him after the war.
- This establishes Melchizedek's position as greater one blessing the lesser
- And Jesus is the greater one even over the Father of the Jews Abraham. v7
- The Levitical priesthood under Aaron was less than perfect. In fact they failed terribly
- God changed the system to list a priest not from Levi tribe but Melchizedek, a tribe of Judah that never produces priests
- And Jesus is from Judah. But that's not the most critical. Jesus was chosen because of His ultimate destiny of living forever as priest for us
- The Levitical priesthood failed to build a bridge from man to God. Can't quite cut it
- v18: We have a better hope for Jesus our High Priest is the bridge builder
- Jesus has the perfect priesthood in 3 ways
1. Oath of His priesthood - God sworn Jesus in as the Priest forever and God doesn't change His mind. v21
2. Office of His priesthood - Other priests died and couldn't continue to serve but Jesus lives forever in this office to intercede for us. v23-25
3. Offering of His priesthood - Jesus became that perfect unblemished sacrifice Himself as He offered Himself that sealed the atonement forever. v26-28
SCRIPTURES : Heb 8:1-13 - 9:22
STUDY
- Jesus is the minster of a better covenant than the Old covenant
- A covenant and contract are both similar because it's an agreement
- However a covenant and contract are vastly distinct
- A covenant is an agreement in which one of the 2 parties dictates the terms on his own entirely and the other party can only either accept or reject the terms
v3-6
- Old and New Covenant are explained in diagram above
- The whole Mosaic law of worship leading to atonement on earth is all a copy of the what is in Heaven
- And Jesus the Priest in Melchizedek order is seated in the real Tabernacle in Heaven in Majesty and yet serving in the Sanctuary
- Jesus became the sacrifice out of obedience while the OT sacrifice is purely a choice of innocence only
v7-13
- The Old Covenant was one that was meant to give life to Israel. For the 10 commandments are the essence of God's way of living
- But unfortunately the problem with the Old covenant is not with the covenant itself but with the people
- They can't keep the terms spelt in the covenant
- That's why the terms in the New Covenant were better. The terms are 4 folds
1. It's one that written inside their hearts and not external.
2. A personal relationship with God is established
- Keeping the law without a relationship is problematic
- Now it's not just a distant relationship with the priest as the mediator but personal
3. It gives me a personal knowledge of who God is
4. It's based on God's forgiveness
- Our sins are forgiven, forgotten
Heb 9
- This newer covenant is made by blood.
- Sacrifice in the tabernacle is a very bloody business. Sin has to be dealt with by a life sacrificed
- Old covenant, high priest sprinkled blood every where ceremonially but not complete and ritual repeated
- Jesus did it once with his life. In heavenly sanctuary, He doesn't offer sacrifice anymore. His job was finished on earth and He sat down in Heaven
- The blood sacrifices offered by the earthly high priest couldn't clear the guilt conscience of the people. Heb 9:10
- v11-14 But Christ's perfect blood is able to cleanse our guilty conscience and redeemed us eternally.
v15-22
- A covenant takes effect the moment the covenanter dies - That's Jesus
- Blood has to be shed, life taken for covenant to take it's effect. It's the same for the old covenant too
- Without the blood there's no forgiveness
- And Christ will appear a 2nd time not to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him
STUDY
- Jesus is the minster of a better covenant than the Old covenant
- A covenant and contract are both similar because it's an agreement
- However a covenant and contract are vastly distinct
- A covenant is an agreement in which one of the 2 parties dictates the terms on his own entirely and the other party can only either accept or reject the terms
v3-6
- Old and New Covenant are explained in diagram above
- The whole Mosaic law of worship leading to atonement on earth is all a copy of the what is in Heaven
- And Jesus the Priest in Melchizedek order is seated in the real Tabernacle in Heaven in Majesty and yet serving in the Sanctuary
- Jesus became the sacrifice out of obedience while the OT sacrifice is purely a choice of innocence only
v7-13
- The Old Covenant was one that was meant to give life to Israel. For the 10 commandments are the essence of God's way of living
- But unfortunately the problem with the Old covenant is not with the covenant itself but with the people
- They can't keep the terms spelt in the covenant
- That's why the terms in the New Covenant were better. The terms are 4 folds
1. It's one that written inside their hearts and not external.
2. A personal relationship with God is established
- Keeping the law without a relationship is problematic
- Now it's not just a distant relationship with the priest as the mediator but personal
3. It gives me a personal knowledge of who God is
4. It's based on God's forgiveness
- Our sins are forgiven, forgotten
Heb 9
- This newer covenant is made by blood.
- Sacrifice in the tabernacle is a very bloody business. Sin has to be dealt with by a life sacrificed
- Old covenant, high priest sprinkled blood every where ceremonially but not complete and ritual repeated
- Jesus did it once with his life. In heavenly sanctuary, He doesn't offer sacrifice anymore. His job was finished on earth and He sat down in Heaven
- The blood sacrifices offered by the earthly high priest couldn't clear the guilt conscience of the people. Heb 9:10
- v11-14 But Christ's perfect blood is able to cleanse our guilty conscience and redeemed us eternally.
v15-22
- A covenant takes effect the moment the covenanter dies - That's Jesus
- Blood has to be shed, life taken for covenant to take it's effect. It's the same for the old covenant too
- Without the blood there's no forgiveness
- And Christ will appear a 2nd time not to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him
SCRIPTURES: Heb 9:23 - 10:39
STUDY
- v25: The priests have to enter to offer sacrifices for the atonement of their sins year after year
- The yearly affair just shows that this way is not good enough. It's not permanent. It's just a reminder of their sins
- Whereas Christ just did it once for His own blood was good enough
- So when we take communion now, we are not remembering our sin but our salvation in Christ
- There are 3 appearances of Jesus mentioned
1. He appeared before God for us. v24
2. He appeared on earth to die for our sins. v26
3. He will appear again at the end when He returns v28
- Each appearance is only done once, never to be repeated again
- Because each appearance fulfills a different purpose
- Men appeared twice. Once on earth having a chance to do God's will.
- He'll appear a second time before God to account whether he did it or not. v27
- We will see Christ again but this time to stand before Him in judgement
Heb 10:5-7
- God is looking for both sacrifices and obedience
- In OT, there was only sacrifice where the object of sacrifice wasn't willing offered himself to be sacrificed
- In Jesus, He was the perfect sacrifice and He willingly offer His own life as the perfect unblemished sacrifice
- Is obedience better than sacrifice? God is looking for both.
v11-12, 19
- Jesus blood removed sin completely and not just covered sin like the OT sacrifice
- There's no need for further sacrifice for sin is completely taken away
v19-25
- There are a few "Let us", indicating things we continue to do
- Christ has already done everything. It's now how we continue to respond to what He has already done
- What are the things we must keep on doing?
1. Draw near with full assurance of faith
2. Hold fast to our hope
3. Spur (Goad) one another to love
v26-31
- Here's a warning to the Jewish Christians
- If they willfully reject what Jesus had done but prefer their own old way of sacrifice that can only cover up their sin, they are in a dangerous position
- These were not born again Christians in the first place
- 3 strong words mentioned here
1. They were inviting the judgement of God. v30-31
2. They were stepping on the Son Jesus
3. They were insulting the Spirit of Grace
- If we don't accept that Jesus is the One and only Sacrifice that works, then we have to really afraid for the consequence of judgement that follows
v32-39
- Here the author gives a final call to persevere in holding on to our belief in Christ in the midst of suffering because of it
- Having to go through the persecution and witnessing your fellow brothers/sisters going through is traumatising
- Possessions were confiscated which the believers displayed such positive joy in accepting that
- The knowledge that no matter what, the greatest treasure/possession of our inheritance in Christ CAN never be taken away, keeps us rejoicing. v34
- And one day, we WILL inherit. v35
- v38-39
- They were encouraged to not 'shrink back' (a nautical term to not lower the sail) but persevere and believe till the end and receive our reward of salvation
STUDY
- v25: The priests have to enter to offer sacrifices for the atonement of their sins year after year
- The yearly affair just shows that this way is not good enough. It's not permanent. It's just a reminder of their sins
- Whereas Christ just did it once for His own blood was good enough
- So when we take communion now, we are not remembering our sin but our salvation in Christ
- There are 3 appearances of Jesus mentioned
1. He appeared before God for us. v24
2. He appeared on earth to die for our sins. v26
3. He will appear again at the end when He returns v28
- Each appearance is only done once, never to be repeated again
- Because each appearance fulfills a different purpose
- Men appeared twice. Once on earth having a chance to do God's will.
- He'll appear a second time before God to account whether he did it or not. v27
- We will see Christ again but this time to stand before Him in judgement
Heb 10:5-7
- God is looking for both sacrifices and obedience
- In OT, there was only sacrifice where the object of sacrifice wasn't willing offered himself to be sacrificed
- In Jesus, He was the perfect sacrifice and He willingly offer His own life as the perfect unblemished sacrifice
- Is obedience better than sacrifice? God is looking for both.
v11-12, 19
- Jesus blood removed sin completely and not just covered sin like the OT sacrifice
- There's no need for further sacrifice for sin is completely taken away
v19-25
- There are a few "Let us", indicating things we continue to do
- Christ has already done everything. It's now how we continue to respond to what He has already done
- What are the things we must keep on doing?
1. Draw near with full assurance of faith
2. Hold fast to our hope
3. Spur (Goad) one another to love
v26-31
- Here's a warning to the Jewish Christians
- If they willfully reject what Jesus had done but prefer their own old way of sacrifice that can only cover up their sin, they are in a dangerous position
- These were not born again Christians in the first place
- 3 strong words mentioned here
1. They were inviting the judgement of God. v30-31
2. They were stepping on the Son Jesus
3. They were insulting the Spirit of Grace
- If we don't accept that Jesus is the One and only Sacrifice that works, then we have to really afraid for the consequence of judgement that follows
v32-39
- Here the author gives a final call to persevere in holding on to our belief in Christ in the midst of suffering because of it
- Having to go through the persecution and witnessing your fellow brothers/sisters going through is traumatising
- Possessions were confiscated which the believers displayed such positive joy in accepting that
- The knowledge that no matter what, the greatest treasure/possession of our inheritance in Christ CAN never be taken away, keeps us rejoicing. v34
- And one day, we WILL inherit. v35
- v38-39
- They were encouraged to not 'shrink back' (a nautical term to not lower the sail) but persevere and believe till the end and receive our reward of salvation
SCRIPTURES: Heb 11:1-12:2
STUDY
v1-2
- Faith is set in a solid foundation of what we hoped for
- Hope here isn't wishing for something that is uncertain, such as "I hope it doesn't rain"
- Hope is being absolutely sure
- Faith is being certain of what we do not see as compared to what we can
- And people who displayed such faith are who God commends
- Faith is needed to believe how God formed the universe by His word even though we have never seen it or prove it
- In other words, faith is needed to believe what we can not see or what we cannot prove about the works of God
- Writer then begins to list down OT characters who had faith in God in various ways
- Abel brought a more excellent gift than Cain because of his attitude and faith in God
- He brought the first and the choicest fat portions
- Though he was murdered by Cain, he lives on, mentioned as the first hero of faith
- Enoch pleased God because he had faith, without which it's impossible to please God
- And God will reward those who diligently seek Him
- Noah believed God about the coming flood and demonstrated this faith by building the ark in a desert
- He was moved with Godly fear and his actions is a proclamation message to the rest of the world by this message they were condemned
- Abraham by faith left Ur, a place that is highly developed and sophisticated already
- By faith, he was moving in just a tent while waiting for this better country to appear
- He didn't build until he knows he has arrived to the place whom God will build
- By faith, Abraham believed God that he'll have a child though they remain barren and had past the age of child-bearing
- By faith, he became the father of the generations as promised by God
- All these were looking for a promise from God which they didn't receive when they died. But they had the faith to believe they will receive it
- They see themselves as just passing through this world and have the heavenly country in their mind which is what endures and what they long for
- By faith Abraham believe the promises that he will have many offsprings through Isaac
- He went all the way to believe that this is possible even if Isaac dies as a sacrificed offering because God can resurrect him
- By faith, Isaac blessed his 2 children even though he has not the promised land yet
- By faith Joseph believed his people will eventually inherit the promised land and wanted his bones to be buried there
- By faith, Moses chose the life of suffering to be with his people and eventually delivered them.
- He obeyed God in all the instructions of the deliverance
- By faith, he believed the reward from God is greater than the riches and pleasures of Egypt
- By faith, the Israelites who followed Moses saw red sea dried up and crossed while the Egyptians drowned
- By faith, Joshua believed God that the strategy He gave to march around wall of Jericho will work and accomplished something
- By faith, Rahab believed the God of Israel is greater and more powerful
- Therefore she decided to cover up the spies and believed God would spare her exactly as promised
- She became part of the people of God because of her faith. Her despised identity doesn't disqualify her
v32-39
- By faith, the rest of the list of heros and prophets either emerged victorious or were able to face and go through what they had to go through
- The truth is we can glorify God with our bodies no matter what happens.
- We can glorify God in good times and bad times, in health as well as hardships
- We glorify God when we get healed. When we are not, we still can glorify God by our faith in Him in the process
- And God has a better plan that when we are finally united with the heros of faith, they would be made perfect.
- When the OT merge with the NT. That's the longing we all worked towards.
v12:1-2
- We have so many man/woman of faith before us living the life that believed God
- Let them be an encouragement to us to bring focus to our lives to remove everything that weighs us down, distracts and hinders us
- To pursue our faith in Christ with perseverance
- Each one of us has a race set before us to run which will look different from others with different situations and purposes
- But one thing is same. We all look to Christ as the perfecter and finisher of our faith
STUDY
v1-2
- Faith is set in a solid foundation of what we hoped for
- Hope here isn't wishing for something that is uncertain, such as "I hope it doesn't rain"
- Hope is being absolutely sure
- Faith is being certain of what we do not see as compared to what we can
- And people who displayed such faith are who God commends
- Faith is needed to believe how God formed the universe by His word even though we have never seen it or prove it
- In other words, faith is needed to believe what we can not see or what we cannot prove about the works of God
- Writer then begins to list down OT characters who had faith in God in various ways
- Abel brought a more excellent gift than Cain because of his attitude and faith in God
- He brought the first and the choicest fat portions
- Though he was murdered by Cain, he lives on, mentioned as the first hero of faith
- Enoch pleased God because he had faith, without which it's impossible to please God
- And God will reward those who diligently seek Him
- Noah believed God about the coming flood and demonstrated this faith by building the ark in a desert
- He was moved with Godly fear and his actions is a proclamation message to the rest of the world by this message they were condemned
- Abraham by faith left Ur, a place that is highly developed and sophisticated already
- By faith, he was moving in just a tent while waiting for this better country to appear
- He didn't build until he knows he has arrived to the place whom God will build
- By faith, Abraham believed God that he'll have a child though they remain barren and had past the age of child-bearing
- By faith, he became the father of the generations as promised by God
- All these were looking for a promise from God which they didn't receive when they died. But they had the faith to believe they will receive it
- They see themselves as just passing through this world and have the heavenly country in their mind which is what endures and what they long for
- By faith Abraham believe the promises that he will have many offsprings through Isaac
- He went all the way to believe that this is possible even if Isaac dies as a sacrificed offering because God can resurrect him
- By faith, Isaac blessed his 2 children even though he has not the promised land yet
- By faith Joseph believed his people will eventually inherit the promised land and wanted his bones to be buried there
- By faith, Moses chose the life of suffering to be with his people and eventually delivered them.
- He obeyed God in all the instructions of the deliverance
- By faith, he believed the reward from God is greater than the riches and pleasures of Egypt
- By faith, the Israelites who followed Moses saw red sea dried up and crossed while the Egyptians drowned
- By faith, Joshua believed God that the strategy He gave to march around wall of Jericho will work and accomplished something
- By faith, Rahab believed the God of Israel is greater and more powerful
- Therefore she decided to cover up the spies and believed God would spare her exactly as promised
- She became part of the people of God because of her faith. Her despised identity doesn't disqualify her
v32-39
- By faith, the rest of the list of heros and prophets either emerged victorious or were able to face and go through what they had to go through
- The truth is we can glorify God with our bodies no matter what happens.
- We can glorify God in good times and bad times, in health as well as hardships
- We glorify God when we get healed. When we are not, we still can glorify God by our faith in Him in the process
- And God has a better plan that when we are finally united with the heros of faith, they would be made perfect.
- When the OT merge with the NT. That's the longing we all worked towards.
v12:1-2
- We have so many man/woman of faith before us living the life that believed God
- Let them be an encouragement to us to bring focus to our lives to remove everything that weighs us down, distracts and hinders us
- To pursue our faith in Christ with perseverance
- Each one of us has a race set before us to run which will look different from others with different situations and purposes
- But one thing is same. We all look to Christ as the perfecter and finisher of our faith
SCRIPTURES : Heb 12: 1-17
STUDY
- Chapter 12 opens with a scene that looks like a description of the heros of faith being spectators cheering us on as we run OUR race of faith
- And we were encouraged to throw off everything that will hinder us from running this race well while fixing our eyes on Jesus
- The witnesses in v1 is better described as these heros of faith testifying of their faith in the invisible - God/Kingdom/Salvation
- And such witnesses of the invisible spur us on to run our own race
- They act as a reminder to us that the path we are walking had been walked right through the history
- We see hardship trials and tribulation faced by our predecessors.
- And we take courage here on earth that we are going after something better, just like them
- But we are not to fix our eyes on these heros but only on Christ
- We are to run the race "marked out" for us
- We don't look to the heros for they are not perfect
- We don't look to them for we are not them, we run our own
- So we are to discover our own assignment and run it well
- Throwing off everything that entangles us can be the 'good' things as well besides the bad
- You can't run the race fast when you have so much weights on you
- Shake off the sin that entangles like the mangrove growth that cripples our advance
- Therefore have the discipline and perseverance to train to run so that we don't develop feeble arms and weak knees. v12
Reflection: God would you reveal to me what things that you want me to throw away that I may run my race well
- Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of faith. He is the originator of the source of faith and he completes it in his perfectness
- This race of faith will face opposition, shame and scorn.
- Jesus set the example how to run this race victoriously when it gets difficult, not if it gets difficult
- He had joy set before Him. He was looking to the future glory while enduring the suffering in His present
- He knew the reason and the reward of fulfilling His assignment
- The reward is the souls of men given by the Father & completing his assignment. He did it in obedience and sat down
- Because He did it, we have the inheritance in Christ. And will inherit all He had promised.
- So now we ponder over this about Him who endured and let Him be our example that will keep our hearts not give up this race of faith
- When the going gets tough in this race, do a comparison. Is it so tough that it requires the shedding of blood? Look to Christ
- When we become a Christian, we become a son and we have God as our Father
- We go through trials, allowed by God as a discipline to us to mature us. Take this as another expression of God's love for us
- God treats us as his children to bring discipline to us, that's why He allows this in our growing process
- It shows we are sons. We have a legitimate relationship with God in Christ
- Though painful at present, it reap the harvest of righteousness and peace later
- Believe that we have a Father and a GOOD Father. With that, endure the hardship
v14-17
- The people whom you surround yourselves with are important
- They affect your race of faith
- Work at living out your faith and help each other so that everyone perseveres to the end
- Be careful of people of poison among you
- Be careful of godless people like Esau who goes after the flesh satisfaction than for his spiritual inheritance
- He couldn't reverse his decision. There are consequences to the choices we make
STUDY
- Chapter 12 opens with a scene that looks like a description of the heros of faith being spectators cheering us on as we run OUR race of faith
- And we were encouraged to throw off everything that will hinder us from running this race well while fixing our eyes on Jesus
- The witnesses in v1 is better described as these heros of faith testifying of their faith in the invisible - God/Kingdom/Salvation
- And such witnesses of the invisible spur us on to run our own race
- They act as a reminder to us that the path we are walking had been walked right through the history
- We see hardship trials and tribulation faced by our predecessors.
- And we take courage here on earth that we are going after something better, just like them
- But we are not to fix our eyes on these heros but only on Christ
- We are to run the race "marked out" for us
- We don't look to the heros for they are not perfect
- We don't look to them for we are not them, we run our own
- So we are to discover our own assignment and run it well
- Throwing off everything that entangles us can be the 'good' things as well besides the bad
- You can't run the race fast when you have so much weights on you
- Shake off the sin that entangles like the mangrove growth that cripples our advance
- Therefore have the discipline and perseverance to train to run so that we don't develop feeble arms and weak knees. v12
Reflection: God would you reveal to me what things that you want me to throw away that I may run my race well
- Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of faith. He is the originator of the source of faith and he completes it in his perfectness
- This race of faith will face opposition, shame and scorn.
- Jesus set the example how to run this race victoriously when it gets difficult, not if it gets difficult
- He had joy set before Him. He was looking to the future glory while enduring the suffering in His present
- He knew the reason and the reward of fulfilling His assignment
- The reward is the souls of men given by the Father & completing his assignment. He did it in obedience and sat down
- Because He did it, we have the inheritance in Christ. And will inherit all He had promised.
- So now we ponder over this about Him who endured and let Him be our example that will keep our hearts not give up this race of faith
- When the going gets tough in this race, do a comparison. Is it so tough that it requires the shedding of blood? Look to Christ
- When we become a Christian, we become a son and we have God as our Father
- We go through trials, allowed by God as a discipline to us to mature us. Take this as another expression of God's love for us
- God treats us as his children to bring discipline to us, that's why He allows this in our growing process
- It shows we are sons. We have a legitimate relationship with God in Christ
- Though painful at present, it reap the harvest of righteousness and peace later
- Believe that we have a Father and a GOOD Father. With that, endure the hardship
v14-17
- The people whom you surround yourselves with are important
- They affect your race of faith
- Work at living out your faith and help each other so that everyone perseveres to the end
- Be careful of people of poison among you
- Be careful of godless people like Esau who goes after the flesh satisfaction than for his spiritual inheritance
- He couldn't reverse his decision. There are consequences to the choices we make
SCRIPTURES: Heb 12:18-28
STUDY
- Hebrews is written to the Jewish believers to convince them that Christianity is better than their religion because it's very possible to turn back
- So this portion brings out again a strong contrast between them and highlighted the better one
7 contrasts
1. Jesus is better than prophets. Prophets spoke in bits/pieces. Jesus gave the whole picture
2. Jesus is better than angels. At best they are servants/ministers but Jesus is the Son
3. Jesus is better than the heros of faith in OT.
- Moses failed to bring the people into promise land. Joshua failed to bring them into rest in promised land
- Jesus brings us into promised rest in God's Presence
4. Jesus is better than the high priests.
- All are imperfect sinful people who couldn't permanently get people right with God. They came and went.
- Jesus came as sinless priest, brought us to God and is our priest forever
5. The earthly tabernacle is only a type of the heavenly sanctuary where the real promises are effected
6. Jesus is the better sacrifice than the bulls in OT. He gave himself ONCE and it's finished
7. Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith. The OT heros of faith are only examples of faith. So we look to Christ
- There is now a stark contrast in experience of the Jews with God
- The God of the OT and NT hasn't changed. It just that by His Sovereign way journey the Jews through a very different experience
- To bring out His full redemptive picture and purpose of law and grace
Mt Sinai
- In the past, the Jews' experience was one of fear and trembling
- A physical mountain where Moses was led up alone
- At a physical state that one would readily shun - fire, darkness, gloom, storm, dreadful impossibility to comply with God revealing the need for God
- Not a celebration but fear. Even Moses their leader was trembling with fear
- A mix of an experience of power, fear through the tangible physical senses
Mt Zion
- Not a physical mountain but a heavenly one
- Not one person Moses but a company of people already have COME to this mountain
- We as believers have come to a joyful experience with thousands of angels rejoicing
- We have come as firstborns because firstborn always gets the inheritance of the family. We have the promise of the inheritance in Christ
- We have come to the spirits of righteous made perfect. Those in Christ have not their glorified bodies yet but waiting for theirs when Christ comes
- So we have God in the midst of angels rejoicing when each come to faith, and surrounded by cloud of witnesses before us. What more can I ask?
- God is still the same. He is the Judge of all. But the experience is totally different from the Jews experience in Mt Sinai
- They came and met the Judge and wanted to run away
- We came and met the Judge but want to run to Him
- Why? Because of Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and His blood shouts louder
- Abel's blood cried out for vengence as Cain killed him whereas Jesus' blood cried out for mercy (speaks a better word) for the sins of men
- The yearly blood sprinkled in the OT only reminded people of the insufficiency of this blood
- Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant and His blood reminds us of the complete sufficiency
- So I'm not afraid to come to worship the living God, unlike the Israelites at Mt Sinai because Mt Zion has brought life
v25
- The sober warning to the Gentiles believers is that if the Israelites who had so much experiences with the physical manifestion of the reality of God
- And despite that still reject Christ, how much more we who didn't have such historical experience
- But we have the heavenly warning from the Word. And there's no excuse
- God will shake the heavens and the earth to reveal what can withstand and last
- And the Kingdom of God we are receiving will remain
- Let's be thankful that we are anchoring on something that prevails
- Let's be watchful that we don't anchor ourselves in something that doesn't remain eventually when the shaking comes
v29
- Our God is an all consuming fire still in OT and NT. God hasn't changed
- Let's approach God in worship with the attitude of awe and reverence
- Illustration : A man in protective suit (Jesus' blood) entering into the heart of a live volcano (God's Presence). Jesus' sprinkled blood enabled us to enter into God's awesome Presence.
- Awesome place literally means dreadful place. It's dreadful to enter into God's consuming presence for you'll be destroyed.
- But thanks be to God, Christ made it possible for us to enter without being destroyed
- Let's approach God with full thankfulness because of this
STUDY
- Hebrews is written to the Jewish believers to convince them that Christianity is better than their religion because it's very possible to turn back
- So this portion brings out again a strong contrast between them and highlighted the better one
7 contrasts
1. Jesus is better than prophets. Prophets spoke in bits/pieces. Jesus gave the whole picture
2. Jesus is better than angels. At best they are servants/ministers but Jesus is the Son
3. Jesus is better than the heros of faith in OT.
- Moses failed to bring the people into promise land. Joshua failed to bring them into rest in promised land
- Jesus brings us into promised rest in God's Presence
4. Jesus is better than the high priests.
- All are imperfect sinful people who couldn't permanently get people right with God. They came and went.
- Jesus came as sinless priest, brought us to God and is our priest forever
5. The earthly tabernacle is only a type of the heavenly sanctuary where the real promises are effected
6. Jesus is the better sacrifice than the bulls in OT. He gave himself ONCE and it's finished
7. Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith. The OT heros of faith are only examples of faith. So we look to Christ
- There is now a stark contrast in experience of the Jews with God
- The God of the OT and NT hasn't changed. It just that by His Sovereign way journey the Jews through a very different experience
- To bring out His full redemptive picture and purpose of law and grace
Mt Sinai
- In the past, the Jews' experience was one of fear and trembling
- A physical mountain where Moses was led up alone
- At a physical state that one would readily shun - fire, darkness, gloom, storm, dreadful impossibility to comply with God revealing the need for God
- Not a celebration but fear. Even Moses their leader was trembling with fear
- A mix of an experience of power, fear through the tangible physical senses
Mt Zion
- Not a physical mountain but a heavenly one
- Not one person Moses but a company of people already have COME to this mountain
- We as believers have come to a joyful experience with thousands of angels rejoicing
- We have come as firstborns because firstborn always gets the inheritance of the family. We have the promise of the inheritance in Christ
- We have come to the spirits of righteous made perfect. Those in Christ have not their glorified bodies yet but waiting for theirs when Christ comes
- So we have God in the midst of angels rejoicing when each come to faith, and surrounded by cloud of witnesses before us. What more can I ask?
- God is still the same. He is the Judge of all. But the experience is totally different from the Jews experience in Mt Sinai
- They came and met the Judge and wanted to run away
- We came and met the Judge but want to run to Him
- Why? Because of Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and His blood shouts louder
- Abel's blood cried out for vengence as Cain killed him whereas Jesus' blood cried out for mercy (speaks a better word) for the sins of men
- The yearly blood sprinkled in the OT only reminded people of the insufficiency of this blood
- Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant and His blood reminds us of the complete sufficiency
- So I'm not afraid to come to worship the living God, unlike the Israelites at Mt Sinai because Mt Zion has brought life
v25
- The sober warning to the Gentiles believers is that if the Israelites who had so much experiences with the physical manifestion of the reality of God
- And despite that still reject Christ, how much more we who didn't have such historical experience
- But we have the heavenly warning from the Word. And there's no excuse
- God will shake the heavens and the earth to reveal what can withstand and last
- And the Kingdom of God we are receiving will remain
- Let's be thankful that we are anchoring on something that prevails
- Let's be watchful that we don't anchor ourselves in something that doesn't remain eventually when the shaking comes
v29
- Our God is an all consuming fire still in OT and NT. God hasn't changed
- Let's approach God in worship with the attitude of awe and reverence
- Illustration : A man in protective suit (Jesus' blood) entering into the heart of a live volcano (God's Presence). Jesus' sprinkled blood enabled us to enter into God's awesome Presence.
- Awesome place literally means dreadful place. It's dreadful to enter into God's consuming presence for you'll be destroyed.
- But thanks be to God, Christ made it possible for us to enter without being destroyed
- Let's approach God with full thankfulness because of this
SCRIPTURES: Heb 13:1-25
STUDY
- ILL: nurse administered wrong drug for baby's urgent operation and baby died minutes later. At inquiry, nurse said, "I sincerely believed I had the right bottle"
- Right belief is crucial. Right belief lead you to the right place, produces lasting behavior (Eg: Gross smoking advert to change belief system)
- Heb 1-12 had been dealing with beliefs that Jesus is better. Chapter 13 is about behaviour. Working out the belief system that God has worked in
- Now is to take our faith in the Heavenly King and work it out here on earth. It has to be a practical faith that impacts our home, marriages, finances
6 indicators that our life in Christ is causing an inward transformation that produces outward positive behaviours.
And these happens when we keep our eyes on Christ
1. We love our own brothers and sisters in Christ
- This is something that doesn't happen if we are not looking to Jesus and depending on Him
- We love Christ, we'll love our brothers/sisters. We hate Christ, we won't like Christians
2. We extend hospitality to strangers lovingly
- By doing so, some may have entertained angels
- Strangers are a litmus test of the level of our comfort to extend love to all humanity because risks are involved
3. We remember those imprisoned for Christ
- Because we are one body in Christ, we suffer together with those who suffer in prison
- God has a special concern for those who are persecuted because of Him.
- The account of Saul persecuting Christians. Jesus' response was when Paul persecuted the Christians, he was persecuting Christ.
- Remember the persecuted by praying for them constantly
4. We uphold a high biblical standard on marriage
- Marriage is honorable with absolute chastity outside marriage and absolute fidelity within marriage practised
- It's written that fornicators (lack of chastity) and adulterers (lack of fidelity), God will judge
5. We are content instead of covetous
- Because our greatest gain is Christ and the life purpose in Him, the pursuit of weatlth and the ills that come with it diminishes
- Like Paul, our attitude should be that we learn to be abound or to be abased, being secure that God is our Provider and Helper. He's with us
- God continues to give us the ability to create wealth, but that's not our life mission anymore
- Wealth is longer our master but our tool to glorify God
6. We take the teachings/counsel received during our maturing process seriously
- The words spoken by our influencers in the past, coupled with the outcome of their conduct as they walked the talk are precious
- It's wise to follow the consistency of such teaching that's based upon the Word for Jesus is the same consistently
7. We are not taken into strange doctrines
- Doctrines that brings us back into observances of rituals/to dos to try to be right with God are bringing us back to salvation by works
- Let our hearts be established by the pure grace of God that enables our salvation and right standing with God while we boast nothing of ourselves
8. We are ok to live a life rejected by the world just as Christ was rejected
- Jesus' body was left outside the gate. His message/act of sacrifice and salvation doesn't fit into Judaism. He was cast out
- There is nothing in sync with Christ's Kingdom and the world's. Christians who walked with Christ will be cast out by the world
- We are philgrims living in a world that doesn't welcome us. But we look forward to one that does - the Kingdom of the future
- Rather be outside a godless world with Christ than be in a godless world without Christ
9. We are prepared to live a sacrificial life
- Offering sacrifices to God is not a foreign concept to the Jews. v11-14 emphasized this
- However Jesus had become our ultimate perfect sacrificial lamb of God, there's no longer any need for further sacrifice for Christ is sufficient
- But the attitude of sacrifice is still promoted. Now we bring 2 sacrifices
- The sacrifice of praise to worship God and the sacrifice of sharing while doing good
- A call for the sacrifice of praise that is not done with convenience but with purpose that cost
- A call to share to give away not something that you could do without but to give something that cost you.
- Somethat that you like/wanted which you have to sacrifice
10. We obey those in authority over us
- God has ordained leadership over us to watch over us
- The word Obey in greek means to be opened to be persuaded by our leaders
- Elders in turn as they lead are to be accountable to God for their leadership
- Do it not to amass power but out of caring for the sheep that God has entrusted
- Leaders keep watch over the flock. It literally means in Greek to lose sleep over while watching
- Leaders pay a high price in the process of caring for the flock. "Am I caring enough? Have I given the right advice?"
- The aim of the sheeps is to bring joy to their leaders as they respond to the leadership. Bring joy by walking closer and closer to God
11. We pray for sent out missionaries/church planters who are ministering and serving God else where
- We pray for 2 things for them
- First we pray for them to live a consistently God-honouring life
- Second we pray for their return so that we can hear what God is doing in them and through them
- We must be ready to receive them back into the flock with open loving arms
Finally
- The entire Christian journey and growth is all from God and by God
- God gave the sacrifice of atonement - Jesus
- God made the atonement eternally acceptable and effect the salvation of man that came and will come to Him
- Because God was the one who raised Jesus from the dead
- And God is the One who will equip us to do His will and work in us what is pleasing to him
- It's all Him from start to end.
- We mustn't try to do things for Him but rather allow Him to work in us and do good through us
- For whatever He calls us to do, He'll equipp us to do it
- So the secret to a fruitful Christian life is to constantly let God run my life in ALL aspects
- And the letter of Hebrews ended with many greetings. Even greeting one another is a part of God's grace and responding to the Word
STUDY
- ILL: nurse administered wrong drug for baby's urgent operation and baby died minutes later. At inquiry, nurse said, "I sincerely believed I had the right bottle"
- Right belief is crucial. Right belief lead you to the right place, produces lasting behavior (Eg: Gross smoking advert to change belief system)
- Heb 1-12 had been dealing with beliefs that Jesus is better. Chapter 13 is about behaviour. Working out the belief system that God has worked in
- Now is to take our faith in the Heavenly King and work it out here on earth. It has to be a practical faith that impacts our home, marriages, finances
6 indicators that our life in Christ is causing an inward transformation that produces outward positive behaviours.
And these happens when we keep our eyes on Christ
1. We love our own brothers and sisters in Christ
- This is something that doesn't happen if we are not looking to Jesus and depending on Him
- We love Christ, we'll love our brothers/sisters. We hate Christ, we won't like Christians
2. We extend hospitality to strangers lovingly
- By doing so, some may have entertained angels
- Strangers are a litmus test of the level of our comfort to extend love to all humanity because risks are involved
3. We remember those imprisoned for Christ
- Because we are one body in Christ, we suffer together with those who suffer in prison
- God has a special concern for those who are persecuted because of Him.
- The account of Saul persecuting Christians. Jesus' response was when Paul persecuted the Christians, he was persecuting Christ.
- Remember the persecuted by praying for them constantly
4. We uphold a high biblical standard on marriage
- Marriage is honorable with absolute chastity outside marriage and absolute fidelity within marriage practised
- It's written that fornicators (lack of chastity) and adulterers (lack of fidelity), God will judge
5. We are content instead of covetous
- Because our greatest gain is Christ and the life purpose in Him, the pursuit of weatlth and the ills that come with it diminishes
- Like Paul, our attitude should be that we learn to be abound or to be abased, being secure that God is our Provider and Helper. He's with us
- God continues to give us the ability to create wealth, but that's not our life mission anymore
- Wealth is longer our master but our tool to glorify God
6. We take the teachings/counsel received during our maturing process seriously
- The words spoken by our influencers in the past, coupled with the outcome of their conduct as they walked the talk are precious
- It's wise to follow the consistency of such teaching that's based upon the Word for Jesus is the same consistently
7. We are not taken into strange doctrines
- Doctrines that brings us back into observances of rituals/to dos to try to be right with God are bringing us back to salvation by works
- Let our hearts be established by the pure grace of God that enables our salvation and right standing with God while we boast nothing of ourselves
8. We are ok to live a life rejected by the world just as Christ was rejected
- Jesus' body was left outside the gate. His message/act of sacrifice and salvation doesn't fit into Judaism. He was cast out
- There is nothing in sync with Christ's Kingdom and the world's. Christians who walked with Christ will be cast out by the world
- We are philgrims living in a world that doesn't welcome us. But we look forward to one that does - the Kingdom of the future
- Rather be outside a godless world with Christ than be in a godless world without Christ
9. We are prepared to live a sacrificial life
- Offering sacrifices to God is not a foreign concept to the Jews. v11-14 emphasized this
- However Jesus had become our ultimate perfect sacrificial lamb of God, there's no longer any need for further sacrifice for Christ is sufficient
- But the attitude of sacrifice is still promoted. Now we bring 2 sacrifices
- The sacrifice of praise to worship God and the sacrifice of sharing while doing good
- A call for the sacrifice of praise that is not done with convenience but with purpose that cost
- A call to share to give away not something that you could do without but to give something that cost you.
- Somethat that you like/wanted which you have to sacrifice
10. We obey those in authority over us
- God has ordained leadership over us to watch over us
- The word Obey in greek means to be opened to be persuaded by our leaders
- Elders in turn as they lead are to be accountable to God for their leadership
- Do it not to amass power but out of caring for the sheep that God has entrusted
- Leaders keep watch over the flock. It literally means in Greek to lose sleep over while watching
- Leaders pay a high price in the process of caring for the flock. "Am I caring enough? Have I given the right advice?"
- The aim of the sheeps is to bring joy to their leaders as they respond to the leadership. Bring joy by walking closer and closer to God
11. We pray for sent out missionaries/church planters who are ministering and serving God else where
- We pray for 2 things for them
- First we pray for them to live a consistently God-honouring life
- Second we pray for their return so that we can hear what God is doing in them and through them
- We must be ready to receive them back into the flock with open loving arms
Finally
- The entire Christian journey and growth is all from God and by God
- God gave the sacrifice of atonement - Jesus
- God made the atonement eternally acceptable and effect the salvation of man that came and will come to Him
- Because God was the one who raised Jesus from the dead
- And God is the One who will equip us to do His will and work in us what is pleasing to him
- It's all Him from start to end.
- We mustn't try to do things for Him but rather allow Him to work in us and do good through us
- For whatever He calls us to do, He'll equipp us to do it
- So the secret to a fruitful Christian life is to constantly let God run my life in ALL aspects
- And the letter of Hebrews ended with many greetings. Even greeting one another is a part of God's grace and responding to the Word