Hebrews PDF - Theos U

HEBREWS Nathan Finochio Course Instructor Copyright © 2020 by TheosU All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior writte...

HEBREWS Nathan Finochio Course Instructor Copyright © 2020 by TheosU All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. [email protected] Custom Quotes are available for reproduction and utilization of this content in classroom, training, study, teaching and other environments. HEBREWS _____________________________________________________________________________ Lesson One: Approaching Hebrews A. The Author 1. The Theology is Pauline (Origen: the thoughts are those of the apostle, but the diction and phraseology are those of someone who remembered the apostolic teachings and wrote down at his leisure what had been said by his teacher). 2. Tertullian suggests Paul was not the author, but rather Barnabas; Luther suggests Apollos. 3. The author is known to his audience (Hebrews 13:18-23) 4. The author uses male gender to describe self (11:32) 5. The author mentions Timothy (13:23) 6. Many early Easter Church fathers attributed the letter to Paul (Clement of Alexandria suggested it was written by Paul in Hebrew to the Jerusalem church, then translated into Greek by Luke, which is why it has a similar style to Acts; Clement says an elder mentor, Pantaenus, told him that); Athanasius also believed Paul wrote it; 7. The Greek is the “best” or most “technical” in the New Testament. 8. “Those from Italy send you their greetings.” B. Date 1. The influence of Hebrews on a letter written from Rome mid 90’s A.D. suggests that Hebrews was written prior to then (1 Clement), 2. Between 65-90 A.D. 3. Contemporary Commentators favor a pre 70 dating (mention of Timothy’s release and not Paul’s suggests mid 60’s dating; mention of Jewish temple worship and rites still going on; lack of specific reference to catastrophic event in 70 in Jerusalem; destruction of temple would’ve been a clinching argument for writer if written after 70). C. Audience 1. Professing Believers (adelphoi; “partakers of heavenly calling”; “enlightened”) admonished against “unbelief.” 2. Clement of Alexandria (150-215) “written to the Hebrews in the Hebrews language 3. Nature of the Content, the backdrop being the Jewish Scriptures, Christ superior to Jewish Religious monoliths; 4. Jerusalem believers? (persecution was fierce; the author rhetorically seeks to “persuade the recipients to remain committed to the Christian faith”; 5. Judaizers throughout the Meditarranean as it is in Hellenistic Greek? Hebrews Old Testament Scripture 1:5a Psalm 2:7 1:5b 2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 17:13 1:6 Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 97:7 1:7 Psalm 104:4 1:8-9 Psalm 45:6-7 1:10-12 Psalm 102:25-27 1:13 Psalm 110:1 2:8 Psalm 8:4-6 2:12 Psalm 22:22 2:13 Isaiah 8:17 2:13b Isaiah 8:18 3:7-11 Psalm 95:7-11 3:15 Psalm 95:7-8 4:3 Psalm 95:11 4:7 Psalm 95:7 5:5 Psalm 2:7 5:6 Psalm 110:4 6:14 Genesis 22:17 7:1-2 Genesis 14:17-19 7:4 Genesis 14:20 7:17 Psalm 110:4 7:21 Psalm 110:4 8:5b Exodus 25:40 8:8-12 Jeremiah 31:31-34 9:20 Exodus 24:8 10:5-7 Psalm 40:6-8 10:8 Psalm 40:8 10:9 Psalm 40:8 Hebrews Old Testament Scripture 10:16-17 Jeremiah 31:33-34 10:28 Deuteronomy 17:6 10:30a Deuteronomy 32:35 10:30b Deuteronomy 32:36 10:37a Isaiah 26:20 10:37b Habakkuk 2:3b 10:38a, b Habakkuk 2:4b, a 11:18 Genesis 21:17b 11:21b Genesis 21:17b 12:5-6 Proverbs 3:11-12 12:15b Deuteronomy 29:17b 12:15 Deuteronomy 9:19 12:21 Deuteronomy 9:19 12:26b Haggai 2:6, 21 12:29 Deuteronomy 4:24; 9:3 13:5 Deuteronomy 6, 8; Gen. 28:15 13:6 Psalm 118:6 D. The Occasion 1. Sociopolitical and religious pressures (10:32-39) 2. The occasion of the collection for the Jerusalem saints (financial pressures) 3. A falling away back into Judaism Lesson Two: Hebrews 1 ____________________________________________________________________________ “God has spoken in these last days through His Son…” A. God Speaking 4. God’s always speaking (Psalm 19:2) 5. Has spoken clearly through Moses face to face and the prophets (Nu. 12:7; Ex 33:11) 6. Jesus is “face to face” abiding Revelation, the clearest indicator on “how to be human.” “He is the shining reflection of God’s own glory, the precise expression of his own very being.” B. The Precise Expression 1. In Greek, the word “character” 2. The idea of engraving: stamping soft or hot metal with a pattern which the metal will continue to bear 3. Coin making is the earliest equivalent to the printing press of William Caxton in the 15th C 4. The engraver made a “stamp” with the image and words of the Emperor 5. God’s character (image and words) have been precisely reproduced in the soft metal of the son’s human nature, for all the world to see what exactly humanity was meant to be. 6. The Law and Prophets were “sketches” of God; the Son is the “exact portrait” of God. “He accomplished the cleansing needed for sins, and sat down at the right of the Majesty Supreme…” C. Father’s Right Hand 1. The Trinity is a foundational Doctrine of Christianity 2. Jesus is God, equal with God, and yet becomes the Father’s servant 3. The Father is first among equals: equality is not the same as function “Let all God’s angels worship Him…” D. Greater Than The Angels 1. Why the comparison? the Law was “delivered by angels” and the Messiah was always to be “greater than angels” and thus “greater than the Law” 2. Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14, Messiah the Son of David, Jesus’s Messianic Identity 3. The author is going to show that the Jews need to move FORWARD with God’s plan of Salvation rather than look BACK: don’t get obsessed with the packaging, get obsessed with the gift! 4. Psalm 104:4 is quoted, illustrating that the angels are servants of God’s purposes, not living embodiments of him. 5. Psalm 45:6-7 the Messiah is “King” 6. God’s justice doesn’t happen through angels but through the “King” who puts things right. 7. Psalm 102:25-27 “You will change them like a robe…” 8. Psalm 110, the heart of Hebrews 9. In conclusion, angels are God’s servants that help with God’s purposes, they are not the Messiah and neither are they king. DO NOT GET DISTRACTED BY PERIPHERALS Lesson Three: Hebrews 2 ____________________________________________________________________________ “So then, we must pay all the closer attention to what we heard, in case we drift away from it.” A. The Drift 10. The Holy Spirit, in tandem with the Message of the Gospel, is the motor of our spiritual craft. 11. The Holy Spirit illumines the word, brings power to the word, and brings grace to obey the word of God. 12. We must constantly rehearse the things we have heard because faith comes by hearing. 13. The Drift comes from not listening. “You made him a little lower than the angels…” B. How To Be Human 1. Jesus is the prototype 2. “In the coming world, God intends that the original order of creation should finally realized: the world is to be ruled, wisely and creatively, by human beings who themselves live in trusting obedience to God himself.” (Tom Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, pg. 15) 3. Psalm 8, “What are humans that you are mindful of them?” At the moment they seem to be lesser than the angels, a lesser order of beings, but God’s intent is that they become the world’s true governors (“crowned with glory and honor”) 4. “Son of Man” according to Daniel and Jesus’s teaching is the Jesus, the Son of God. 5. 1 Cor. 15:20-28 quoting Psalm 110 “sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a stool for your feet.”—Pauline theology. 6. Jesus’s “putting things under his feet” is not just a Divine function but a Human function— something to which Humanity is called. 7. Genesis 1:26-28—the four fold purpose of God for Mankind. 8. There exists a FUTURE ROLE of Jesus in the New Creation and a PRESENT ROLE of Jesus right now. All things haven’t YET been put under his feet, but they WILL be (1 Cor. 15:20-28) 9. Jesus has gone AHEAD OF US into God’s Future, “tasting death for everyone” and defeating the power of death and sin. In Jesus, God has already dealt with death for us. “He had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he might become a merciful and trustworthy high priest in God’s proscenia, to make atonement for the sins of the people.” C. Our Perfect Older Brother 1. Jesus isn’t the perfect older brother that gets everything right while looking down at us; rather, he intercedes to father for us and sticks up for us because of his experience, love, and compassion. 2. Jesus, clearing the way to the Father, makes us holy through his death. 3. Jesus reverses the curse of death by making it a freedom from slavery rather than a finality. 4. He himself was tempted—Jesus identifies with our weakness and sympathizes. 5. He is able to be the perfect priest because He is both God and man: he has all of the reliability and power of God, and all of the compassion stemming from the experience of being man: he knows how to rescue us and minister to us in our hour of need! Lesson Four: Hebrews 3 ____________________________________________________________________________ “So think carefully about Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession of faith.” A. Greater Than Moses (3:1-6) 6. Moses was a prophet that had face to face revelation 7. Jesus is God; He is the entire point of Moses’s ministry, which prepares the way for Jesus. 8. The Exodus shadows what God will do with us by sending Jesus: freedom from sin. 9. God’s house is not a physical temple, it’s a people. We are the house. (1 Peter 2:5) 10. We are part of the house as long as we HOLD ON TIGHTLY TO HOPE, understanding what Christianity is all about. 11. What is Hope? Hope is a Theology. B. The Deceitfulness of Sin (3:7-13) 1. Psalm 95: the Wilderness Journey. The writer will come back again and again to Ps. 95 2. Driving to the Lake: some were super keen, some felt rushed, we all got hungry and moody; we became refreshed by food and then set out on the mission again. 3. It isn’t just about becoming overwhelmed by the journey or never really wanting to have been a part of it either: it’s the self-deceit and creeping justification of our micro-sins that need to continually be checked. Thoughts become words; words become actions; actions become habits; habits become lifestyles; lifestyles determine destinies. This, too, can cancel the journey. 4. Sin is dangerous because sin chokes out belief. 5. “Withdraw”—what does that insinuate? C. Don’t Stop Believin’ (3:14-19) 1. Driving tired: what do you do? Corroborate with our feelings? No: get out of the car, wake yourself up, take a walk, think about the best options. Nobody gets into a car planning to fall asleep: our motives aren’t always the determining factor of destiny. 2. Hold on your confidence, right through to the end! 3. Sin removes confidence; unbelief removes confidence; believing God renews confidence. 4. Believing God is “faith”: GET OUT OF THE CIRCUMSTANCE AND REMIND YOURSELF OF WHO GOD IS: He has DELIVERED you; He is CLEANSING you; He is LEADING you and GUIDING you; He is BRINGING you to the PROMISE of PARADISE. 5. The Merry Go Round of SIN and UNBELIEF leads nowhere. 6. Resolve to live from what God has SAID and DONE rather than what you see and feel. 7. The Lesson of the Wilderness of Sin is that you can SEE miracles and die of unbelief. 8. Seeing is not the same thing as believing. 9. Faith comes by “hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” 10. Faith is renewed and revived by daily gathering the provision of God for our journey, and living off of that, rather than forgetting what we have heard and falling asleep at the wheel. 11. Our responsibility is to “pay attention to the things that we have heard, lest we drift away.” Lesson Five: Hebrews 4 ____________________________________________________________________________ A. God’s Rest (4:1-13) 12. Biblical Rest is a ceasing from trying to be God, please God, and please others. 13. Biblical Rest isn’t solely Heavenly Rest or Sabbath Rest, as in taking one day off a week. 14. Biblical Rest exists where the Canaanites live: in the here and now. The Promised Land has to be cleared of all blockages and blockades to belief in our GOD who fights for us. 15. Israel never fought for Israel: GOD fought for Israel. Jesus is our TRUE Joshua leading us into victory in the Promised Land. 16. Jericho was the first city to fall, and an illustration that it wasn’t going to be Israel that would clear the land, but rather GOD that would fight for Israel and clear the land AS THEY TRUSTED AND OBEYED HIS WORD. 17. So then, Biblical Rest is a ceasing from striving, from unbelief, and a resting in what God has said. Biblical Rest believe that God is not ANGRY at us in loss; it doesn’t fear God’s wrath when He disciplines us; It believes that “mercy fills all our cups”, and goodness flows through all of the texture of our outer life, because God is working ALL THINGS together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes. 18. “A believing soul is never more at ease than when she is putting forth her full strength in the service of God.” - Spurgeon 19. In verse 8 and 9, the “rest” of the Promised Land was a “rest” from wandering without purpose: there was still much to develop and work at, but they were “home.” 20. There are 3 rests in this passage: God’s own rest after Creation, the rest Joshua gave the people upon entering the Promised Land, and the “future” rest of Paradise elaborated upon in chapters 11 and 12! 21. The author is afraid some of his followers are going to do what the Israelites did and miss the “rest”: that’s why he tells them to believe! that’s the only way to enter rest now and then! 22. God’s word is so sharp it goes in, often times, without us even feeling anything, like a sharp knife! 23. The Early Christians didn’t have a Bible like ours, and the New Testament Canon wasn’t really recognized til the 2nd Century: what they understood to be God’s word was the Old Testament and how they all “came true” in the life, ministry, message, death, and resurrection of Jesus! 24. Psalms 95, for example, “lays open” people’s hearts: it exposes them. 25. It’s going to do its work, and there’s nothing we can do but respond to it in faith. 26. God’s Word is able to cut out unbelief in our life as we submit to it and respond to it in faith. B. Jesus, Our Priest (4:14-16) 1. When Jesus “passed through the heavens” he didn’t lose his humanity: Jesus, to this day, remains fully human. His incarnation is for perpetuity, 2. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a priest that would “perfect” His people. 3. Because of Jesus’s full humanity and full Divinity, he is the perfect high priest. God Himself experienced human frailty and weakness—he can physically identify with our story of pain, longing, rejection, brokenness, and fear. 4. We can now come before Father in confidence: not a confidence in our works, but in a confidence that our Perfect High Priest has accomplished on earth and in heaven. And in that confidence we can “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 5. We must hold fast to the confession that we can approach Father boldly for help NOW! Lesson Six: Hebrews 5 ____________________________________________________________________________ “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” A. Learning the Family Business (5:1-10) 6. Jesus didn’t become human and die because the first person of the Trinity is a sadist; neither did Jesus learn “sonship” by some sort of hazing—Jesus was always fully God and didn’t need to “learn” to be perfect. 7. Jesus’s flesh was “beset with weakness,” just like ours. His flesh had to suffer the denial of its desires as it, too, learned the pattern of obedience. Jesus taught His flesh how to serve God—the journey that all of us are on. The main difference between us and him is that we make mistakes along the way, whereas he never made mistakes. But it doesn’t mean that  his flesh didn’t have to die every single time. God submitted to the sinful urges in the Incarnation. 8. This process was Jesus learning the family business in his flesh, which he would ‘perfect’ and take with him into heaven and for eternity. Forever he is priest, and forever he is a son. 9. His priesthood resembles a priesthood that showed up earlier in the Bible, akin to a priest named Melchizedek, which we will examine later as the author develops this theme. B. The Ultimate Diss (5:11-14) 1. The author wants to elaborate on Jesus’s ministry as a Priest, but he’s aware that this is “Next Level” theological thinking—the only kind that can happen when people have been emotionally, mentally, and physically weaned off of childish Christianity. 2. Mature Christians are “skilled” in the word of righteousness—they know the narrative of God’s Salvation History, and are able to articulate the story of Jesus in light of God’s Salvation History. 3. It’s more than an accumulation of facts because it has everything to do with their identity. It’s like someone who has got on the fitness train—they know EVERYTHING about diet/ weight training/breaking old habits/what foods do what/what doesn’t work/why people get fat etc. 4. Their “powers of discernment have been trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” This isn’t rocket science, this is just regular grown up stuff. The writer is looking for signs of life here. This is a rebuke to people who have flirted with the most important thing in the world, but have avoided it for any number of reasons. 5. Why do people avoid learning the basics? Lesson Seven: Hebrews 6 ____________________________________________________________________________ “Go on to maturity.” A. ABC’s (6:1-12) 6. The writer suggests that there are “elementary” doctrines of Christ that are supposed to be graduated from in order for our faith to mature, much like we must move on from the things we learned in the first grade. We don’t forget them, but we memorize them in order to build on top of them. All of life hinges on having memorized the ABC’s and 123’s. 7. What are the ABC’s of Christian Doctrine? a) Repentance from Dead Works b) Faith Towards God c) Baptism d) Laying On Of Hands e) The Resurrection f) Eternal Judgment 8. If we have those ABC’s down and in our hearts, and are building upon them, we will not line up like those who have been a) Enlightened b) have tasted the Heavenly Gift of Salvation c) have tasted the good Word of God d) the power of the Holy Spirit and e) have fallen away. 9. The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) 10. Do we let things run deep, or has the Word and Experience been choked up, vulnerable to the devil, and we begin to look like those who are not just done with God, but have taken the antagonistic stance towards it, almost as if they are shouting, “Crucify Him!”? 11. “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things— things that belong to salvation.” God is always speaking to better things—He sees our work and love that we show towards him and others in all we do. 12. But the issue here is to not be “sluggish” in our diligence to the discipline of hope. 13. The promises are inherited “though faith and patience.” 14. Our Faith, Hope, and Love all need to be developed diligently, over time, in the gym of Christianity. B. The Anchor (6:13-20) 1. “Abraham, after much patience, obtained the promise.” The promise came in God’s timing, as God developed the story and prepared the elements for a miracle. God waited til He could get all the credit. This doesn’t mean that every dire situation is a miracle waiting to happen—the context is God being faithful to what He has promised, not our presumptions. 2. God’s promise to Abraham and then His oath to KEEP His oath were the 2 promises that God made: and the second one was sworn by Himself—it don’t get much higher! 3. God made a promise to keep His promise. 4. In the same way God swore by Himself to Abraham, and fulfilled His promise (duh, that’s the whole point of the Bible—a record of God’s faithfulness in history), so, too, God has sworn to us by the word of His Son, Jesus Christ, that we are heirs with Christ. Jesus’s words to us—that He is God, that He has forgiven us, that we will live forever with Him— are as good as God’s words to Abraham: they will surely and totally come to pass. 5. Because of Jesus, “we have this hope like an anchor.” This is the only passage about anchors in the N.T. other than an actual couple rusty anchors mentioned in Acts 27. 6. Theologically, it’s a new idea for the Bible. The writer is thinking as a Jew, and thinking of the most important place in the entire world as he mentions that Jesus is our anchor “beyond the veil.” 7. The veil is the holiest piece of land on earth: it’s basically heaven on earth. Once a year a priest was allowed to go in. But all that changed for those who believe in Jesus, because when Jesus died, the veil was torn in two. 8. Jesus is our anchor, holding us in place to Father’s very presence. 9. It’s not just that we have access, it’s that we are ANCHORED to Father through Jesus. 10. The writer is saying that, as long as we are attached to Jesus, we have a closeness that even the priests couldn’t get. How much better is Jesus than the old way of doing things? WAY BETTER! Lesson Eight: Hebrews 7 ____________________________________________________________________________ “To begin with, if you translate Melchizedek’s name, it means ‘king of righteousness’; then he is also ‘king of Salem’, which means ‘king of peace’. No mention is made of his father or mother or genealogy, more of the beginning or end of his earthly life. He is described in a similar way to the son of God; and he continues as priest for ever.” A. Who the Heck is Melchizedek? (7:1-10) 11. The author comes back to Psalm 110, in which it refers to Jesus’s priesthood to be “after the order of Melchizedek.” 12. Melchizedek’s story in Genesis 14 is going to help the Jewish Christians understand how Jesus could possibly be a priest if he is not a Levite; remember—the Jews would be thinking, “OK—Jesus is of the tribe of Judah and descended from David—legally the King. But he is emphatically not a Levite! How could he serve as a priest as well?” 13. The author shows the Jews a superior priesthood to the Levites—Melchizedek’s. Melchizedek is a King/Priest that just shows up without the “qualifications” to be a King/ Priest, but yet Abraham—kind of the biggest deal to the Jews, and the father of all those who believe in faith (Christians)—pays tithes to him! 14. The author pulls the thread a little more—Levi was in Abraham’s loins genetically when Abraham was paying tithes. So not only does Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, pay tithes to Melchizedek, but Levi—who don’t pay tithes to no one—as well! 15. This is the type of Priesthood Jesus has—a KING/PRIEST priesthood. And the precedent isn’t a Biblically foreign one—it’s right in Psalm 110—David is prophetically calling it! 16. Melchizedek TYPIFIES Jesus’s Priesthood as well—there’s no mention of his beginning or end, just like how Jesus has no beginning and no end. The lights are starting to go on for all the Jewish readers. 17. Some scholars believe that Melchizedek is a Christophany: that might be true, but it’s more probable that he’s a rad Priest/King to God that sort of showed up and then vanished to serve as a type and shadow of Jesus’s weightier Priesthood. “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” B. Jesus’s Eternal Priesthood Is Just Way Better (7:11-28) 1. Jesus’s qualifications for the Priesthood come from something better than being born a Levite—they come from “the power of an indestructible life—as it is written of him, ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” (7:15-17) 2. The Law regarding only Levites being priests, then, is set aside because of Jesus’s “way better” Melchizedekian Priesthood. After all, the author notes here that “The Law made nothing perfect.” (7:19) 3. “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.” The Levitical Priesthood was, at best, temporary, because these guys  kept dying. But Jesus lives forever, and has been forever. So based on that alone, the Levitical Priesthood sucketh much in comparison. It’s math, people. Crunch the numbers. 4. Seeing as Jesus is always alive and always ministering, He can save “to the uttermost” those who draw near to God through him! Not around him. Through. 5. Not only that, Jesus never sinned like the other priests. These other guys were barking out orders at everyone while sinning themselves and needing to offer sacrifices—it was a bit flawed. Everyone in the audience probably nods their heads at this last argument that lands it’s mitts right on the jaw of the Law. 6. The author says, “Guys—Jesus never sinned! His Priesthood smokes the other Priesthood by a long shot just because of this big one—duh! So do you want a priesthood that has to offer sacrifices for itself, or do you want one that has literally never sinned once.” (7:26-28) 7. Jesus lived a perfect life, then offered up his perfect life once and for all. Boom. 8. Now He continues His Priesthood in heaven, at every moment cleansing and perfecting us. It’s ongoing and eternal. Lesson Nine: Hebrews 8 ____________________________________________________________________________ “They serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly realities, in line with what Moses was told…” A. Doll House (8:1-7) 9. Moses drew out the dimensions of the Tabernacle, all of the instruments in it, and all of the ways it would function by having seen what was in Heaven—God, in a sort of way, pulled back the curtain between our world and His, and Moses was instructed to write it all down so they could create a “doll house’ copy of it. 10. The Barbie House is not the real deal—it’s a silly, flimsy, cheap copy of the real thing. In the same way, the author is trying to draw parallels between things that REALLY matter, and things that don’t. The author is telling the Jews, “Guys—that was JUST A DOLL HOUSE.” 11. This doesn’t dismiss the importance of the Barbie House tho—if that’s all you know, it at least gives you context to what a house actually is. It familiarizes yourself—gives you an interpretive framework—so that you can understand the value of the true house. 12. The author is asking the readers to abandon their emotional attachment to the copy for the REAL DEAL—the doll house for the actual house—the Barbie In Charge Of The Pink House (Moses) for the Actual Home Owner and Builder (Jesus). 13. God always had this actual house, this New and Better Covenant, in mind always—Moses and His Tabernacle served to point to a better House and Better Tabernacle with a Better Lord of the House. “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts… I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” B. A New Covenant Predicted (8:8-13) 1. The author now turns to the prophetic writings of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible to further bolster the case for the idea of a coming “better” covenant than that which Moses handed down to their forebears, here citing Jeremiah 31:31-34. Jeremiah, as moved by the Holy Spirit, predicts that God is already thinking about something better! 2. The author shows it plainly and clearly in Scripture: God has already moved on in his mind! 3. And it’s exactly what Jesus will accomplish at the cross: God’s indwelling by the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, and a “Priesthood” of believers that doesn’t depend on lineage. 4. “No one shall teach his neighbor” simply meaning that you don’t need to be a Levite or prophet, begging the people to get right with God constantly. Every believer has the right to encourage themselves and others in the Priesthood of the Believers and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 5. “They shall all know me, from the least to the great.” There are no necessary birth orders in this new covenant. 6. “And I will remember their sins no more…” Accomplished in Christ’s Atonement. 7. “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.” The Old Covenant has been growing old and dusty since Jeremiah spoke this—and God was preparing his people through the prophets to be ready for Jesus! Lesson Ten: Hebrews 9 ____________________________________________________________________________ “By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing.” A. NYC Under Construction (9:1-9) 8. The author of Hebrews goes back into another diatribe regarding the structure and regulations of the Tabernacles and Temples. He is pointing out that, in the same way that it was necessary for Jesus to fulfill certain regulations and rites (which will be elaborated upon in the next chapter), so the Old Covenant were a copy so that we could fully understand Jesus’s ministry. 9. The author notes that the Old Covenant’s restrictions, even upon the very High Priest (he could only go in once a year), kept not only the people out of God’s presence, but God’s best choice on earth (the High Priest himself!) out, save for one day a year. 10. The High Priest had to come before into the Holy Place with the blood of the sin offering: he DARED NOT approach the Holy Place without the blood of the sin offering, or else God would strike him dead. After sprinkling the blood of the sin offering on the mercy seat (in between the cherubim, verse 5), he would make like a shepherd and get the flock out! 11. “According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper…” Yeah, duh—kind of just makes you really nervous and wonder if God is even happy with you. The priesthood is even scared of Him! 12. The whole time God is waiting for humanity to come to the end of their striving: everything was there to point out that we can’t make it work God’s way. It was pointing to the need for God to fix everything, and not us. 13. We can’t be good enough for Him. That’s what this entire system teaches us—that it takes God to fix what we broke. 14. We could really call the entire Old Testament “New York Under Construction.” The City looks really ugly and slow and incomplete when everything is torn up—and there are temporary routes that pop up during construction—but when it’s done, it WORKS and is AWESOME. “When Christ appeared as a high priest…through the greater and more perfect tent… he entered once for all into the holy places…by means of his own blood., thus securing an eternal redemption. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” B. No More Sacrifices (9:11-28) 1. The blood of goats and bulls was sprinkled for the purifying of flesh, but it didn’t deal with the inside—with the soul and spirit—our continually guilty conscience. 2. Jesus offered his own blood, by the Spirit who raised Him, to God—now THAT powerful blood doesn’t just cleanse the outside, but it also cleanses the inside; it “purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” 3. We don’t have to go around trying to do rites or sacrifices or “good things” to make ourselves feel better about ourselves—that NEVER worked and it will NEVER work. We must find our complete acceptance in the work of Christ, and live and work from FREEDOM, not the attempt at earning God’s love or acceptance. 4. The author suggests that Jesus’s death is actually the end of the legal writing against humanity—it’s the literally stopping point of the accusations of the Law. Jesus is the end of justice against sinners. 5. “For without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.” (9:22) This is a major theme of the Old Covenant that brings power to Jesus’s Atoning Substitutionary Death 6. “Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” (9:23) So even though the blood of bulls and goats had to be shed in the Doll House manner (to provide a framework for humanity in understanding it’s fallen distance from God), so the Heavenly Sanctuary rejected humanity until the appropriate sacrifice and blood had been taken up to it by Jesus Himself. 7. “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (9:26) God appeared, and once for all died, was raised to life, and in doing so has dealt with sin Himself. 8. “Christ will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” (9:28) Jesus has already dealt with sin for all those who believe on Him— if you’re still waiting for God to fix the sin problem through Messiah, wait no longer! Oh and He’s coming back a second time to get us! C. Contemporary Issues 1. But it all seems a bit barbaric—blood, sacrifice etc. 2. Hold on—things we do as a culture seemed very barbaric to other cultures: abortion as a means of birth control, atom bombs, land mines etc., euthanasia) 3. Perhaps we aren’t in a position to comment on ancient practices and rituals, much less what the cost of sin and death means to God. 4. Let’s at least try to understand it. Lesson Eleven: Hebrews 10 ____________________________________________________________________________ “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” A. FIAT (10:1-18) 5. The animal sacrifices didn’t work, writes the author of Hebrews, because they were ongoing. If my car is perpetually broken, and I keep taking it to the mechanic to get fixed, and every week the problem still pops up, clearly what is supposed to be fixed has not been fixed. This perfectly sums up the animal sacrifices. 6. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (10:4) The writer finally just says it: guys, even though blood needs to be shed for sins, animal blood doesn’t work. 7. Animal sacrifices were a temporary fix—like tape to a leaky pipe—to the sin problem. 8. We see in Genesis two types of blood shed: the first is Adam’s sinless blood being shed to create Eve—a picture of Christ and His Church; we also see the goat being killed by God to temporarily cover Adam and Eve. The one brings life to the absence of life; the other brings a temporary solution to an eternal problem, until humanity has come of age. 9. “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.” Jesus, the descendent of David (who wrote this), takes upon Himself a sinless body and produces the Church—the holy, spotless, beautiful bride. 10. Psalm 40 is quoted here, once again showing that the Scriptures, or the Law, always pointed away from itself to something better that was coming. “He does away with the first in order to establish the second.” (10:9) 11. “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” (10:12-13) Christianity isn’t karma or a cyclical religion: it has a definite starting place, a falling away, a new beginning, a building, a climax, a period of gathering momentum from the aftermath of the climax, and a grand finale of a never ending climax upward and upward forever. We are part of the story, rooted in history, and continuing now through to when Jesus comes back. 12. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we don’t re-crucify him: it is finished, and we commemorate it. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” B. Get Your Bold On! (10:19-39) 1. This section of the letter is the part where the invitation is sent out. The work has all been explained, and done, and set up. The house has been cleaned, the candles lit, the food prepared, and now all that’s left to be done is for people to show up. 2. The way to really appreciate a gift is to use it to the max! Drive the pimped out Range Rover!!! Come before God with confidence because of Jesus! 3. Approach God with that “true heart” that Jeremiah 31:33 was talking about. 4. Approach God having completely heard what He has had to say in Jesus, and having put your confidence and belief in that! 5. Approach God having your heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience—let the powerful, mind-blowing truth of Jesus’s sacrifice and blood be internalized, and decidedly ENOUGH for you—abandoning your own works to please God for His Great Life and Work that pleased God. Come in Jesus Name and Works—Not Yours! 6. Approach God without being ashamed, having been baptized as a public announcement of your faith (6:2); worship isn’t a private thing, it’s very much a public thing! 7. Hold on to your confession—the things you have decided to believe—and encourage others to do so and live that way as well. We need each other and the encouragement to stay close to Jesus. 8. “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins…” The author here is addressing those who are abandoning their Christian faith for Judaism—if they do that, and they don’t stop sinning, then they are going back to nothing—a system that God Himself has abandoned seeing as He has moved on by sending Jesus: there’s no way for them to get their sins forgiven. 9. And if you are doing this publicly, making a mockery of Christ to others in order that you can be accepted back into the Jewish Community, you are “insulting the Spirit of grace.” This is the one sin that the Holy Spirit will not forgive, seeing as you did absolutely nothing to receive it, only believe, and then you turn your back on it. That just cheapens Jesus’s sacrifice, who the Spirit loves: that really ticks him off. 10. We aren’t talking about people who never truly believed: we are talking about people who were “sanctified”. 11. “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have don the will of God you may receive what is promised.” The author recalls all of the hard times and persecutions these believers have endured, even to the point of “joyfully accepting the plundering” of their property because they knew they had a “better possession.” This book is all about “betters”. And the author writes, hold on to your confidence! Keep holding on!!!! 12. Habakkuk 3:17-18 A Theology Of Suffering 13. We have something better coming 14. But even amongst the hard times we will NOT shrink back and be destroyed, but we have faith and move forward to the saving of our souls! 15. Faith is about holding to what we have heard, not what we see, and pushing forward through every difficult circumstance. Lesson Twelve: Hebrews 11 ____________________________________________________________________________ “Faith is looking at God and trusting Him for everything, while hope is looking at the future and trusting God for it.” N.T. Wright, Hebrews for Everyone A. What God Says Matters (11:1-12) 16. “What then is faith? It is what gives assurance to our hopes; it is what gives us conviction about things we can’t see.” The author is now going to prep the readers for the practical— to make sense and help them prepare for what they are experiencing and what they may experience in the future. 17. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” First we find out that faith and hope are tied to together, but that hope is more about things to come, whereas faith is dealing with the here and now. But the author tips us off to a second, and more defining factor of faith: the entire universe came by God’s words. 18. Romans 10:17 tells us that, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The author here is clearly developing a theme about God’s words and their connection to our faith. We know that God created the worlds by what He has told us, not just by our blind guessing. If faith comes by “hearing” God’s words, then our salvation is as solid and real and miraculous as the existence of the universe. 19. God’s words make things. 20. It doesn’t matter how we feel, or what we see, or what obstacle lies ahead: God can make things happen just by speaking to them, and God can help us just by speaking to us—He can create what we need by His words. 21. This is why this chapter is important: these people are about to leave the community of faith because what they see and are experiencing is externally troubling. The author plays a trump card by writing down the long list of the heroes of faith, saying, “Guys—every single one of these people got a word from God!” 22. And how does the book of Hebrews open? “God, in these last days, has spoken to us through His Son!” So the audience of Hebrews has indeed received a word from God, and this unique and special revelation through Jesus is worth sticking to the plan for, just like all of the heroes of faith. In fact, they didn’t even have the same clear message: theirs was even more muddled at times—but they stuck to their guns! 23. “Without faith it is impossible to please God—for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him!” (11:6) Faith recognizes that God is able and WILLING. 24. The heroes of faith put action into what Gold TOLD them, turning their back on the world and putting the world and it’s trust systems in the wrong—which is what “Biblical faith” is all about. It’s all about living like Abraham, the father of faith: if God says to believe him, I’ll believe him; if God says to go, I’ll do my best to go; if God makes promises, I’ll believe his promises, even if I never see it happen immediately or in this life. What God says works for me. Period. This is the essence of “Justification by Faith.” B. Back to the Future (11:13-40) 1. “They died in faith—they hadn’t received the promise, but they had seen it from far off…” (11:13) There are promises for now, and there are promises for then; the promises for then far outweigh the promises for now—and we must have a theology that elevates what is coming over what is now. 2. This doesn’t negate the fact that this life is full of purpose—that God is indeed at work now, and that this life matters! But what it does is create priority and perspective. The Redemption of our Bodies is a promise; eternal security with Christ is a promise; healing in heaven is a promise, greater than any temporary healing here. It’s a tension. Their “hopes” were never made completely perfect or realized here on earth, even when they followed God and saw great miracles. They always saw the “distant city”. 3. Abraham and Isaac (11:17): what Abraham gave to God in his heart always lived. Our lives and dreams are most alive when given. Our heart is best guarded when given. 4. The future blessings of Jacob, the future instructions of liberated bones by Joseph: it all points to God’s faithfulness in the future both in the here and now and what is to come. FUTURE. 5. Remember Moses? He had an opportunity to be rich and secure, but chose to obey God’s words. (11:24-28) 6. The author here has listed all of these obvious examples to the Jewish Community—it’s their family story—and he’s making them re-think the family slideshow in the light of God’s new Exodus in Jesus Christ; the author wants them to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the entire story, and that they are now part of the story more than EVER—that their faith in Jesus is a continuation of the Exodus story. In fact, this is THEIR Exodus story! Be like your family, your forefathers—and stay full of faith even in the face of stacked odds! Being brave runs in the family! 7. The People of God have never stopped being faithful to him in the face of persecution— ever. Isaiah was said to have been sawn in two; the prophets were severely persecuted by their own people—identify with them! Don’t fear being persecuted by your own, it’s a common theme of the great people in the lineage of faith! The world didn’t deserve them! 8. “God had provided something BETTER…” They knew, by faith, that something better existed. Lesson Thirteen: Hebrews 12 ____________________________________________________________________________ “Reminding yourself of truth, not trying to conjure up feelings of this or that sort, is the way to keep going in faith and patience.” N.T. Wright, Hebrews for Everyone A. Long Distance Running (12:1-17) 9. The writer is coming to his main point: we are in a long distance race, not a short sprint. It’s not a breezy light jog, and it’s not over quickly. It is a course that has it’s moments where we want to give up; it has its challenges. 10. But the good news is that there is a massive crowd of people that have already finished the race, and they are cheering us on—leaning over the rafters of heaven and shouting encouragement by their own story. 11. They say, “GET RID OF THE WATERMELON—IT’S A LONG DISTANCE RACE, DUMMY!” 12. A lot of us carry unnecessary weights that make the already-fatiguing race that much more difficult. 13. Anxiety over petty things; self-advancement; resentment and bitterness; unforgiveness; secret greed for the bodily appetites; pride. 14. How do we lose these things? Keep your eyes on Jesus—commit to living in a perpetual state of repentance; live in a community of repentance; live in the humility of repentance. 15. Daily remind yourself of what is true: be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 16. “You have been struggling against sin, but you haven’t yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.” (12:4) 17. God spanks who He loves; God understands that discipline is the difference between destruction and delight. People who lack discipline become a menace not just to themselves but to those around them. So then God’s discipline towards individuals isn’t just love towards us, it’s love towards scores of people. 18. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Discipline yields delight; it is suffering in the moment and supernatural skill in its accumulation. It trains us in righteousness, meaning that righteousness isn’t in our nature, but rather something that can become “Second Nature.” 19. So don’t be lazy and sensual like Esau, just giving in to what “feels good now.” That’s a ridiculous, mindless, purposeless kind of living. Put on some strength and get a backbone! Get some discipline! Get some spiritual disciplines! Spirituality does not exclude discipline: in fact, a real vibrant faith will be FULL of discipline! “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.” B. Better Than Sinai 1. Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the angel party, the assembly of all the saints, are BETTER than the seeable, tangible artifacts that came from Sinai and the Law. 2. God has been speaking (alluding to chapter 1 again) to you through Jesus and this New Covenant—you’d be a moron to ignore what he is saying and run back to the sad little mountain that doesn’t even have a current part to play anymore. That’s backwards. Look forwards. Things have been shaken, and Sinai didn’t make the cut; things will be shaken, but God’s Kingdom won’t be shaken. 3. How to be a Christian: “be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” and “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” 4. Be thankful that God—in Jesus—has allowed you to come before him! And offer to God acceptable worship—to be taken seriously and not in some detached “spiritual” sense— because God is real and all-powerful. 5. OK—what is that acceptable worship? Enter practical teaching on worship in the last chapter. Lesson Fourteen: Hebrews 13 ____________________________________________________________________________ A. How to Worship God (13:1-9) 6. “Let brotherly love continue.” Love people like they are your family, not just your friends. 7. Treat strangers like they may be angels (vs 2) 8. Remember people who are in prison or have been mistreated—as if you are with them. (vs 3) 9. Hold sexuality to it’s design and highest expression—marriage. (vs 4) 10. Don’t love money and be content with what you have, and let this console you: Jesus is with you, “for rich or for poor.” (vs 5) 11. Feeling like the odds are stacked against you financially because people don’t like that you’re a christian? God will help you—don’t fear people. Fear God rather than people. (this is what was happening to the Jews). 12. Hold leadership in high regard and IMITATE THEIR FAITH AND LIFE. (vs 7) 13. Jesus doesn’t change—if there are leaders who are saying to live in a different way than what you have received from Jesus and his leaders, remember that Jesus doesn’ swerve. 14. Be established, strengthened, rooted in grace—grace towards others, grace towards yourself when it comes to matters of conscience and dietary restrictions. 15. NEXT VERSE: we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have NO RIGHT TO EAT!!! WHHHHHAAAAAAAT: author is making talking massive smack—not to attack the Jewish Community without purpose, but to establish the Community of Faith in grace: 16. WE eat of a table that you cannot BUY A PASS, BE BORN A PASS, EARN A PASS, CONJURE UP A PASS. 17. Jesus MAKES US priests, like David, who eat of the Table of the Presence—what do you think Communion is?! 18. In Summary regarding what Worship Is: “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good good and share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders and submit to them.” 19. TOP THREE NEW TESTAMENT SACRIFICES PLEASING TO GOD: a) Sacrifice of Praise b) Sharing What You Have c) Obeying your leaders 20. “Now may the God of peace who raised Jesus from the dead… equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight…” The whole purpose of this letter—to be a vessel of the power of God for the purpose of giving believers TOOLS for following Jesus! 21. “Grace be with you.” This message isn’t a punch in the face, it’s a grace in the face! Adam Noah Abram Moses David Jesus ____________________________________________________________________________ Thread of Jewish Redemption Adam Noah Abram Egypt Assyria Babylon Persian Greek Carthaginian Roman Aztec European ____________________________________________________________________________ Thread of Gentile Ascent