Intro to Hebrews full

Review of Book of Hebrews

This book of Hebrews is somewhat of a mysterious book. There is a lot we don’t and cant ever know for sure about this book from its author, to its timeframe, and even to its author

and that begins with its author. The author is anonymous and has remained that way until today which should sit well with our souls because we know that the ultimate author of all scripture is God himself.

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So our souls can rest in the uncertainty here because the earthly author was determined by the Holy Spirit to be unnecessary for us to know.

I have some guesses and I am sure somewhere out there someone thinks they for sure no the answer but if the Holy Spirit was not dogmatic about it then I won’t be either and we will praise God for this author’s anonymity.

The timeframe is also a mystery. We can detect that it was written before AD 70 because it is written like the temple is still in tact as well as the animal sacrificial system so best guess would be just before the destruction of the temple somewhere between AD68-70.

And the audience is also a mystery, there are many guesses as there are many guesses about the author but I think we can be general. This is written to what appears to be a predominantly Jewish audience because of its heavy stress on the old testament prototypes, its push against the permanence of the levitical system, the appeal to and authority of the Old Testament and the stress the author places on begging his audience not to fall back to the way of their old faith in Judaism

The mystery of this book is beauty to us and can sometimes bother the more OCD folks but not matter the mystery we can rightly study it tonight and forevermore as a powerful message from God.

So we just talked about some of them but what are the main themes of this book of Hebrews.

Central Themes

God’s Promises have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

From the levitical priesthood, to the priestly ministry, to the animal sacrificial system, to the temple itself all find their ultimate fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For example, Hebrews 7:23-28

Hebrews 7:23–28 ESV

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 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. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Christ has ultimately fulfilled the sacrificial system because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins, he has ultimately fulfilled the priesthood forever because he is perfect in heaven as our priest always living to make intercession for us.

The fulfillment in Christ has an already but not yet character.

The end has not yet come,

for example the new covenant has come but believers are not yet perfectly free from sin.

So all is fulfilled in Christ but there is more fulfillment yet to come

and then for us, We should read the OT in light of that fulfillment in Christ.

The other theme of this book is that the Christians he is writing to, though they had remained stalwart in the face of earlier attempts to lead them astray, were now faltering in their commitment.

Some had ceased to assemble as we see in chapter 10, some had even taken steps to dissociate themselves from other Christians because of the way they were treated. So the author is warning them to not drift away, he warned them about neglecting their hope and its obligates, he warned them about the dangers of turning away in chapter three and then in our part of Hebrews we see the warning against failing to attain the good end or of their hope.

Perseverence in hope while enduring the cost of discipleship is the main pastoral issue behind Hebrews and the author seeks to encourage and enable perseverance but that encouragement and perseverance is rooted in the person and works of Jesus Christ.

Which brings us to our scripture today. We are dropped in at the end of a section where the author is arguing one of our main points that there is a greater rest still to come that is foreshadowed in the Old Testament and we see the author arguing from the middle of chapter three to the end of chapter 4 that Isreal never entered the rest God promised them in the Promised land because of their failures. We see our warnings that they fell and we need not to ignore their failure.

We see that the message the Isrealites heard about rest and the promise was of no value to them because of their lack of faith and through their unbelief had failed to take advantage of God’s offer to rest.

and we see in chapter 4 verse 3 that he is speaking to we who have believed so he is not concerned with their initial saving faith here but more about their perseverance in that faith.

And then we see finally that the ultimate rest God promised to us did not lie in Joshua, it did not lie in his rest at creation but that their is a future rest still to come and today we are going to be encouraged to persevere and fight to enter that rest.

And that is where we pick up in our sermon today.