Hebrews 10v15-25

The result of one sacrifice for all sins for all people for all time is the precious news of the new covenant. Jesus Christ has opened up for us “a new and living way” (v20) of relating to God, so that we can come boldly. We can “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (v22)

The Israelites, under the Old Covenant, were commanded to keep the law, but they lived under a perpetual sense of guilt and condemnation. They constantly went astray in their hearts and their motivations were to desert the Lord their God.

V16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” The writer to the Hebrews is quoting this passage from Jeremiah for a second time (see 8v10) to emphasise its importance in his argument.

In the light of this amazing truth a believer has a strong foundation to “hold fast the confession of hope without wavering”. (v23)

We need frequent reminding of these wonderful things and to encourage each other to keep going in faith.

Previously......

Hebrews 10v1-14

Our focus for the evening revolved around verse 5 “a body you have prepared for me”. This is a reminder of the coming of our Lord as a baby. Jesus came to do the will of God specifically at Calvary to be the sacrifice once for all, for all time. (v10, v14)

In coming to Christ we are made perfect (in spirit) v1, our sins are removed (v4) and we therefore should no longer be sin conscious. We are sanctified (i.e. we become saints) v10 and perfected forever (v14).

Hebrews 9v15-28

The Old Testament sacrificial system served a purpose for the time from Moses up to Christ’s death. Year upon year animals were slaughtered in strict accordance with the law. The sacrifices were not actually taking away sin, but acting as a picture of the sacrifice of Christ who was to come.

The sacrifices involved much shedding of blood. The blood was sprinkled on the book of the Law, the people, the tabernacle, and the ministry vessels. In a similar way Christ’s blood has been “sprinkled” for our cleaning and forgiveness. He died once in history for all people for all time. “One sacrifice for sins forever” (Hebrews 10v12)

Hebrews 9v1-14

The most striking difference between the efficacy of the Old Testament sacrifices and Christ’s sacrifice is the effect on the human conscience.  

V9: “both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience”.

V14: “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

The blood of animals had no actual power, but was a type and shadow of the real “Lamb” who was to come.

!0v4: “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins”.

We can be conscious of our sins, our weaknesses, our shame, and we can be fearful of the fire of hell. All these are of no avail unless they cause us to run to Christ for help and for His answer. He died in our place. He took our weakness, our sin and our shame and went to hell for us. It is being Christ conscious that brings us into the holy Presence of God and gives us peace.

Hebrews 8v1-13

Verse one is the central point of the argument of the book of Hebrews. The writer has been carefully demonstrating, using the Old Testament, that Christ is the High Priest of the New Covenant. The Levitical high priests were a type of Jesus Christ who was to come. In the same way, the elaborately constructed earthly tabernacle was a copy and shadow of the heavenly one, not made by the hands of men. Everything is better about the New Covenant. It is established by a better High Priest with a more excellent ministry and its foundation has better promises too.

This New Covenant was foretold in the Old Testament in many passages of scripture, but Jeremiah 31v31-34 is perhaps the main one, quoted in full in Hebrews 8. It is the longest Old Testament quote in the New Testament. It describes how the old covenant was inadequate to enable people to live new lives. They were always going astray, and God was always finding fault with them, with resulting punishment. The New Covenant puts God’s laws in our hearts and minds. With born again spirits we want to please God and obey His commands. Sin is not part of who we really are. And when we do sin, the blood of Jesus has already paid the price for our forgiveness and cleansing.

The New Covenant is about a love relationship between us and God.

“I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (v10)

“ …for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” (v11)

Hebrews 7v11-28

Melchisedek occupies about three chapters of the book of Hebrews. His uniqueness as a priest and king is central to the argument. He was the Old Testament shadow to describe Christ’s role as “our high priest forever after the order of Melchisedek”.

The Levitical priesthood was not a perfect system. It was powerless to cleanse the guilty conscience. God appointed mortal imperfect men, who had to offer sacrifices daily for their own sins before they could offer sacrifices for the sins of others.

Christ on the other hand was appointed by an oath of God. He offered up Himself once for all, forever. He is holy, undefiled separated from sinners. He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him. He ever lives to make intercession for us.

So much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. He has obtained a more excellent ministry as Mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises.

What an amazing passage of scripture!

Hebrews 6v13-7v10

The solid food begins with God’s promises to Abraham. Although God’s word is good enough to trust on its own, He endorsed it with an oath. (v13)

Genesis 22v16,17: “By Myself I have sworn…in blessing I will bless you…”

The word of men is not always reliable, and the swearing of an oath is deemed to add weight to it. God did not need such a device, but He used it to reassure Abraham that he could trust him. We too have strong reassurances from the Lord that His word is reliable. (v18) He knows that we need reassurance.

Psalm110v4” The Lord has sworn and will not relent, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”

Melchizedek is a seemingly obscure Old Testament character that the writer used to make powerful points about the importance of Jesus Christ the Messiah. These verses 7v1-10 are not easy to understand (we were warned in 5v11). Melchizedek was unique in the Old Testament – a priest and a king, and one who had no known genealogy. He is a “type” of Christ, a foreshadow of our great High Priest.

The Levitical priests received tithes from God’s people, but they were mortal fallible man, who themselves were descended from Abraham. Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek and in a sense the sons of Levi paid also through their forefather Abraham. Christ however came from the tribe of Judah and he is a priest from an entirely different order.

All this is to say that Jesus Christ is above all, better than all, ever living, our Great High Priest and King. All praise to His name!

Hebrews 6v1-12

The writer of Hebrews is preparing to deliver “solid food” to his readers. He is trusting that God will enable them to understand it since they had become “dull of hearing” (5v11, 6v3).

He prefaces that glorious section (6v13-10v18) with a salutary warning (6v4-8), the like of which has been hotly debated over centuries. We put debating aside and used our time rather to encourage and strengthen our faith. We saw the need for such a warning (we need to persevere in believing on Christ, but He preserves us to the end) since it is natural to take grace for granted. Nevertheless we reminded ourselves of the many stirring assurances given to believers about their making it to heaven. For example: “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1v6).

The writer said he was “confident of better things” in their case (v9). No real Christian can lose his salvation even if he falls into gross sin time and time again. Time and again he will seek the mercy of his Saviour (that’s in the nature of a real born-again believer). That such a one could utterly reject the Lord and His salvation is unthinkable, but on the same count we are foolish if we ignore the stern words given by the Holy Spirit to us here.

Hebrews 6v10 is a beautiful verse of comfort and love. Nothing that we do for Him is forgotten by him or ignored. Rather our service can be a reassurance to our hearts when they condemn us (1John 3v19,20).

Next week the “strong meat” begins; wonderful stuff about Christ’s person and work and His fulfilment of Old Testament types and shadows. Definitely worth the effort of any Christian to get one’s head around; promises to strengthen and to put down firm roots of faith for even the wobbliest believer!

Hebrews 5

We have, in this passage, the Old Testament high priest given as a shadow of the great High Priest Jesus, who came once for all and made the old system obsolete. Like the ordinary high priests, Jesus was subject to physical weakness, and He was called by God to His office. Jesus was also foreshadowed by the king-priest Melchizedek, who came out to meet Abraham after a battle.

A high priest “can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray” (v2). This is good news for weak immature Christians, like the Jews who were the first recipients of this letter. They were tempted to go back to Judaism and forsake faith in Christ. There is good solid food to follow on in chapters 7-10. It is all about Jesus the perfect High Priest, the all sufficient sacrifice, and the new covenant that gives worshippers “no more consciousness of sins” (10v2).

If they could only sit up and listen and not be “dull of hearing” (5v11) or sluggish (6v12) then this food would strengthen and confirm them in faith in Christ and fix their eyes on Him.

Hebrews 4v1-16

What is “His rest” spoken of here? Heaven, salvation, one day off work each week? We agreed that it is a description of the eternal life that has already begun for us in our relationship with Christ as born again believers.

In Psalm 95, David prophesied of a future day, “Today”. A day to cease from trying by your own good deeds to save yourself, to justify yourself before God. A day to be humble before the Lord and to receive His rest as a gift with thankfulness.

Although His rest describes our salvation, it also describes our day to day abiding in Him, walking in His love. “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30v15)

We must choose to receive His rest and it is our loss when we don’t. He is grieved when we do our own thing, but He is able to “sympathise with our weaknesses” (v15). He never stopped providing for His people during their 40-year desert journey, but we should learn from their example not to be hardened in attitude against the Lord. Yet we will have repeated opportunities to hear “His voice” and be sensitive to His Spirit. When we fail we need not hesitate to “come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need2 (v16)

Hebrews 3v7-19

This passage reminds us of the unbelieving stubbornness of the children of Israel at the time of Moses. They grumbled and complained on ten separate occasions and would not enter the promised land of Canaan when God gave them opportunity. As a result of their unbelief they spent 40 years wandering in the desert until every person aged 20+ had died. Moses gave them God’s laws and commandments, but these did not change their evil hearts. Under the new covenant in Christ the laws are written on our hearts (6v10). We have the Holy Spirit living in us and we are born again. Yet the same warning comes to us, “exhort one another daily, while it is called “today” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (v13). Whilst we are assured that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1v6), we cannot “continue in sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6v1).

Whilst Canaan could be seen to be a “type” of heaven, and many old hymns refer to it in this way, we felt strongly that Canaan rather represented the victory and abundant life that Christ has won for us to live now. What is the “rest”? (v18) Chapter 4 will reveal all.

Hebrews 2v14 -3v6

The glories of Jesus our Saviour continued to occupy our attention in our study this week. He became a man and suffered death in order that we should no longer be afraid of death and pain that goes with it. “Let not your hearts be troubled”, “Do not fear”, are repeated commands throughout scripture. How beneficial it would be to us to lay up these scriptures in our hearts and allow them to become our reality. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”. (Psalm 23v4)

There is nothing that we go through that Jesus did not suffer, nor any temptation that we face that He did not. He was “in all points tempted as we are yet without sin” (4v15). He came to “release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (2v15).

What a great salvation we have in Christ!

Chapter 3 addresses the recipients of the Hebrews letter as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling”. How encouraging to struggling believers who were tempted to give up! How do we see ourselves and each other? We may be all too aware of the shame and blame of our actions and words, but in Christ we are “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling”. How beneficial to start to see ourselves as God sees us!

Moses had his faults which are recorded for us in scripture, (by him!) but 3v5 is a wonderful quote from Numbers 12v7 “Moses was indeed faithful in all his house” These were words spoken by the Lord Himself to Aaron and Miriam when they criticised their brother. How amazing is the Lord’s grace to us all! Hebrews 3v4 reminds us that our salvation is all of God. He is the Master Builder “For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. How important to build in His strength and ability and not our own. “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labour in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127v1) And we are His house!(3v6) “but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.^” (3v6)

Confidence is just faith and trust. If we truly have faith and trust at our heart level we will be rejoicing and praising God continually.

Can we keep going like this to the end, trusting Him through thick and thin? Of ourselves, no way! “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”. (Philippians 1v6)

Aren’t we glad it’s not about us and our faithfulness! It’s about “Christ Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him”. (3v1,2)

Alleluia!

Hebrews 2v1-13

Having argued the uniqueness and supremacy of Christ in chapter 1, the writer sternly warns his readers to keep on following Jesus. In doing so he heralds the book’s main theme- DON’T GIVE UP!

In contrast to the law of Moses, issued at Sinai, when even the violations were harshly punished, the gospel of grace comes in with signs, wonders and miracles; tokens of God’s goodness.

Yet salvation, as great and wonderful as it is in our Lord Jesus Christ, cannot be ignored, sidelined or taken half-heartedly. Hebrews 3v14: “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end”.

We reminded ourselves here of verses that reassure us that the Lord Himself will get us to the end safely. Romans 8v35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?... persecution? famine?…etc…yet in all these things we are more than conquerors”. 2Timothy 1v2: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day”.

Thus we balanced scripture with scripture to get the whole picture. We must do the persevering in Christ, but He preserves us in Him. Thus we have no need to fear, just look to Him and trust.

The Hebrews passage goes on to describe the humanity of Jesus. He had to trust His heavenly Father (v13) and had perfect faith as He “tasted death for everyone” (v9). We who get all the benefits of Christ’s sufferings have become His brothers and sisters in a close bond to Him. His faith becomes our faith; He makes us holy and we become holy through Him; He’s not ashamed of us (we might be ashamed of ourselves!); He loves us wholeheartedly.

Unless the Son of God had become a man like us, He would not have won our salvation. “He was made a little lower than the angels”(v9), the very ones He had created. For this reason He is now “crowned with glory and honour” at the Father’s right hand. (v9)

We may see ourselves as struggling alone in this world to be faithful to Christ but the truth is: “God raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. (Ephesians2v6)

What a perspective from which to live life!

Hebrews 1v6-14

This section of scripture is big on angels. Angels were big in Jewish minds too, not least because there were tens of thousands of them around when the law was given on Mount Sinai. We considered the importance of angels throughout the bible and concluded that verse 14 of out text said it all: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”

We spent time looking up the Old Testament references of the quotes given and reading the context of each. It was a worthwhile effort giving us better understanding of the writer’s argument. The superiority of Christ (how could you think He was just an angel?) came across forcibly. He is the angel’s creator.

The argument is building to 2v3 “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Miss Christ and you miss everything.

Hebrews 1v1-5

Nobody really knows who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews; although many think it was the apostle Paul. It was written to Hebrew Christians who, suffering trials for their faith, were sorely tempted to revert back to Judaism. The great theme of the epistle is summarised in Hebrews 2v3 “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation”. For real Christians there is no turning back; the narrow way of following Jesus Christ is the only path to the Father.

The glory of this epistle is Jesus himself; it’s all about Him and His finished work and wonderful redemption for us on the cross.

Hebrews1v1-3 is a brilliant introduction. It is an outline of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and present state, seated “at the right hand of the Majesty on high”.

Hebrews 1v4 introduces the rest of the chapter regarding the huge and obvious differences between Jesus Christ and the angels.

Some false teaching sought to put Christ down to the level of angel, but v5 makes it quite clear that he was the very Son of God.

We looked at the complete passages from the Old Testament that the quotes in v5 are taken from. Psalm 2 is a Messianic psalm and 2 Samuel 7v12-16 has a powerful Messianic message especially in v13 “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever”. Who else but our Lord?