Teaching Copy Hebrews 4-5
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Hebrews 4.
Hebrews 4.
Read the passage out loud.
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.
Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world.
What do you think of when you hear this passage read?
What do you think of when verse one says to be careful?
A better translation of the term is let us begin to fear. Does that change your thoughts on what Paul is trying to communicate?
Who do you think Paul is comparing Christians to in the first four verses?
We are going to read several scriptures, so I want us to see what God is saying about the Israelites in comparison to what Paul is warning us Christians.
“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.
They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshkol and explored it.
Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.
You grumbled in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.
Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’ ”
Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.
The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes,
and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”
In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God,
who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.
When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore:
“No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors,
except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.”
For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.”
And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience,
There is a key term through Hebrews 4, it is rest. What kind of image does that word bring to mind for you?
What do you think about the active nature of entering into a place of rest? So If you think about the story of Joshua leading people into the promised land, they had to do a lot of active work.
When we think about our salvation as “rest” What is our active role?
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
What was Israels sin?
They chose sin over rest. Think about the fact that God’s anger was because they chose sin over Him!
Our sin can prevent us from receiving God’s ultimate rest.
Lets move on. I want to try something. At your tables, take 90 seconds. and come up with a definition of the word of God. If you had to explain it someone who had no idea what it was.
Read the definitions.
Lets read Hebrews 4: 12-13
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
In this section how does you definition of the Word of God fit?
The phrase “the Word of God.” is only found in the book of Hebrews, here and then in chapter 13 verse 7.
The Greek for “the Word of God.” is.
ho logos tou theou
its really interesting the early church fathers would have always translated this passage to mean Jesus. Not the Bible, not the Old Testament, not New Testament, but Jesus. Anyone know why?
The word logos.
Whenever we see the work Logos in the Bible its going to point to Jesus.
Lets look at this in the entire context of the chapter. Paul starts out by saying, you really need to pay attention to this. Paul is first and foremost an evangelist, he wants people to know Jesus.
In chapter 3, Paul tells us that Jesus is greater than Moses, who is the Person that gave the gospel, or good news of God to the Israelites. And they rejected it.
Paul is saying but now, now we have Jesus the son of God, He Himself has given us the good news, so if the Israelites messed up, if they chose sin over rest, then it is possible for us to do the same thing.
And he warns us. He says think about it. If God was mad at the Israelites for rejecting Moses and would not let them enter the promised land. How much more angry do you think will have if we chose sin over His Son?
Also this goes along with the idea that we have an active role as we enter into God’s rest, we are required to actively have faith and trust Him. Its not about works, but its about the response to God’s promise. Isreal responded with fear when they saw the hard work it was going to take to enter into the promised land, we need to respond with faith.
Also I told you, that you may get tired of me saying this. But I believe this is another clear indicator that Paul wrote Hebrews. Think about Paul’s letter the the Philippians where he says to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Its active!
I think that is a great Segway into the last part of chapter 4 and the first part of chapter 5.
We start to get this kind of strange high priest imagery again. Lets read the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.
This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.
In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”
We are going to do some more table work. This time lets take 5 minutes. Try to come up with a list about what makes Jesus the great high Priest.
He is greater than Moses, the Angels or any priest before.
He suffered
He ascended to Heaven.
He defeated Hell
After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—
He is the literal Logos or word of God!
A High Priest serves for life, Jesus is the only eternal High Priest.
Lets look at verse 2 again. Hebrews 5:2
He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.
I think it is interesting here. it seems like a more accurate translation is “those who go astray through their ignorance.” I think there is an interesting connection here between intentional sinful lifestyle, and making a mistake.
I think there is an interesting connection between “ordinary everyday sins and the intentional life of sin.”Hebrews 5: 4-6
This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
There are two things that are evident from this passage, two qualifications to being a high priest.
The priest has to understand sin, and sympathize with the people. This does not mean the priest has to sin. But the priest has to have the ability to feel the great distress the sins of the community, or the sins of the person bring upon them.
This is really important- the phrase “to deal gently” could be translated as “curb his emotions” this explains that the priest’s role was not to judge the sin, or to get upset with the person because of their sin. It was not a teaching role, it was a role of atonement; regardless of their feelings the priest was to intercede for the person with God!
The office of the priest is appointed by God! Human nature may cause us to seek out something. But being a High Priest is a sacrificial calling, that only God has the right to appoint. However God uses people to do that!
Ok so we are going to look at verse 6 by itself, because it is one of the maybe oddest things in the book of Hebrews. If not the oddest the most kind of misunderstood.
And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
Anyone remember who Melchizedek is?
Lets look.
When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.
He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.
After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High,
and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.
And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
The Lord says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb.
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
He is only mentioned 4 times in the Bible, two of them are in Hebrews and yet he is connected to Jesus why?
I am going to tell you I think the reason that this is misunderstood is people try to read something into that is not there. But if we look at it from a systematic approach I think that we will see why God wants us to understand this. In this context systematic simply means it builds on itself.
What is Jesus role, as described so far in Hebrews? Lets talk through it.
Who is He greater than? Angels. and angels were the messengers of God.
Moses who was the greatest prophet. and what did prophets do? They lived among people and brought the word of God.
Jesus is the literal Word of God, the Logos. He not only lived among the people, He became a person.
What other role did Jesus fill?
He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.
The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.
Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.
4. He is the King of King. The greatest king.
Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?
Anyone remember what the Messiah translates too? It comes from the word Messias which means the Anointed one, it is the proper name give to the Christ. So kings were anointed, the the Messiah is the Anointed one, the last anointed king.
Last role of Jesus as explained so far in Hebrews.
5. He is the Great High Priest.
Ok now with knowing all of that lets talk about Jesus being a priest in the order of Melchizedek. We know from Genesis that Melchizedek was not only a High Priest,
which by the way was a title given to him before God gave the Levitical law to Moses, and before God told Moses how Aaron, Moses brother, the first Jewish High priest. Was supposed to act, dress, how to attend the temple and do the sacrifices and so on.
But Melchizedek was also a king. He is the only person in the Bible other than Jesus who is a High Priest and a King. So that is why Paul tells us that Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Knowing that helps us better understand verses 7-10
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered
and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Most of the High Priest work was done around The Day of Atonement. We still hear about that today. Its called Yom Kippur. We are not gong to spend the time this morning to look at it, but you can go back and read Leviticus chapter 16 to see more info about the Day of Atonement.
But one of the biggest roles was to make a sacrifice for the sins of the people so that they could have atonement or payment for their sins.
Jesus is the the ultimate sacrifice, so not only is He the High Priest who makes the sacrifice, He is the sacrificial lamb.
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.