Sermon Tone Analysis

Joke

Ha-Foke-Bah

Video

Upset The Equilibrium

Introduction

What do these three lines “The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return”, “You make me want to be a better man” and “I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone” have in common?

That's right; they're in the pantheon of the most romantic film quotes of all time.

Truth is, all the world loves a good love story, because we love to be hypnotized by the transformational power of love.

Truth is, all the world loves a good love story, because we love to be hypnotised by the transformational power of love.

After all, isn't it the greatest emotion in this world?

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that the entire world loves a lover.

If he was right, then the best loved

In every love story there is always a problem.

It is a problem that we all share.

By all, I don’t mean just you and me, I also mean God above shares this problem with us.

The problem that happens so many times when we extend our hand in love only to bring it back bruised and broken.

Several years ago there appeared on Broadway a political satire called Of Thee I Sing.

The opening scene of that musical took place in a smoke-filled hotel room.

A group of what we might call super delegates had gathered.

They had chosen a man to represent them, and now they were looking for a platform on which he could campaign.

They had all kinds of suggestions, and then one of the delegates looked at a chambermaid who was there to clean up the room and asked her, "What do you think the people of the country want?"

She responded, "Love.

Everybody wants love."

And love became the major plank for the platform.

It's not so outlandish in comparison to current political platforms based on words like "hope" or "change" or "integrity" or "truth."

All of those words get thrown around in today's political campaigns, but they don't mean much.

The politicians might was as well be shouting about "bear" or "hot dogs and baseball" or "shopping at the mall."

In some ways, the love story of God and the Jewish people is a story like any other story you would encounter in New York, or Sydney, or Tel-Aviv.

It is the story of God extending his hand in love to Israel only to discover broken vows, broken homes, broken hearts and a broken covenant.

But in other ways, this story is very unique and it ranks among one of the most amazing love stories in all of literary history.

Now often times, we have ignored the importance of the early Jewish followers of Yeshua in this love story.

We too often forget that first and second generation of Jews who had to wrestle with the truth of Yeshua and all that they knew before.

Probe the Problem

The New Chapter of the Love Story Begins (8:1-5)

The setting for the letter “to the Hebrews” is somewhere in Jerusalem around 63 C.E. the capital city of Israel and place where God’s Temple resided and where the Priest’s served him day-and-night.

Rabbi Paul at this point is an aged man about 60 and seems to have made it as far West as Italy and had been doing some hard time in prison along with his fellow-coworker Timothy but they had both been recently released ().

Jerusalem was becoming increasingly more hostile to Jewish followers of Yeshua.

Just the year before in 62 C.E., the High Priest called for Jacob - the brother of Yeshua - to be thrown from the roof the Temple.

Josephus, the Jewish historian tells us, that Ananus gathered the Sanhedrin, accused Jacob of violating the Law by preaching Yeshua and so order him to be thrown from the Temple.

Just the year before in 62 C.E., the High Priest called for Jacob - the brother of Yeshua - to be thrown from the roof the Temple.

I imagine there must have been great mourning and great perplexity among the Jewish followers of Yeshua.

There beloved leader, and brother of Yeshua, murdered by a leading religious authority, murdered at the House of the Living God.

I imagine some people were enraged, others were scared, and others were questioning the validity of their faith in Yeshua.

After all, this was the High Priest acting, was he not God’s agent on planet earth.

Wasn’t the priest-hood God’s front-line servants?

Didn’t the priesthood represent the will of God to the people?

Now, a rabbi’s life, like any man’s I guess, is blessed or ruined by how he responds to a crises.

And so I imagine when Rabbi Paul was told by God to write a letter to these Jewish believers in Jerusalem he decided to write one of the most brilliant letters in all the Brit Chadashah.

A letter that strings together quote after quote from the Hebrew Bible so that his readers can be assured that they are part of God’s new love story with Israel.

Paul is focusing all he just said about Yeshua.

For seven chapters he has been comparing and contrasting Yeshua to key historical people and events from the Hebrew Bible to show them that they are not only part God’s new love story with Israel but its an even more amazing love story.

(Chapters 1-2).

He compares Yeshua to angels because in the Torah and Jewish tradition the Torah was given through Angelic beings.

But Yeshua was not an angel but a Son with a message from the lips of his Father, therefore, Yeshua’s message of good news is better in every way.

Then the writer warns us that if Israel was punished for not obeying the message given through angels how much more should we be careful about not obeying the message given by the Son of God.

What is more even though Yeshua was superior to angels in every way, look at how he humbled himself on a cross for our salvation.

We see God’s greatest glory and greatest humility.

(Chapters 3-4).

Yeshua is superior to Moses.

Moses was a leader of people, Yeshua is leading people.

Moses built a tent, Yeshua built the universe.

Joshua brought the people to the land and gave them temporary rest but Yeshua gives a greater, eternal rest.

Then the writer warns us that if the people Israel rebelled against a temporary rest being offered by Moses and Joshua how much greater are the stakes for us if we reject the permanent eternal rest.

Chapter 5-7 Yeshua is superior to the priesthood.

This was shown in the fact that the priests had to keep offering sacrifices for themselves.

The priests were corrupted by nature know matter how perfect they did there job.

Then Rabbi Paul points out that Yeshua was not from the levitical line of Priests but from the line of Melcizedek.

That mysterious figure from who blesses Abraham.

That priesthood David said would be true of the Messiah.

Then he gives a third warning that if rejecting the sacrifices had consequences how much more so would the consequences be for rejecting Yeshua because then you would be rejecting God’s ultimate offer for reconciliation.

Chapter 8:1 he says here is the big take away, the big point of all this we have a High Priest who perfectly completed His work.

He sat down at majestic throne of God.

Not in the earthly Temple, but in the Heavenly Temple:

He says here is the big take away, the big point of all this we have a High Priest who perfectly completed His work.

I have heard people say that Rabbi Paul sounds more like a Greek Philosopher here than a Rabbi.

But, Jewish rabbis from before Paul and after Paul all agreed that Moses was producing only a copy and that if it was a copy the real one had ultimate significance for us.

He says here is the big take away, the big point of all this we have a High Priest who perfectly completed His work but He is not idle.

This is a new chapter in God and Israel’s love story.

I have often wanted to start a new chapter in my love story with my bride.

In my mind, it always begins with me hitting it big with a book, or hitting it big in some business venture or investment.

In my new chapter, the new beginning requires a new place for my bride.

Not that our current place is bad.

But our home shows her age of 30 years.

The air conditioning has to be constantly monitored.

The pipes bringing water in the house are old and show signs of aging.

We have had to replace the roof, replace flooring.

It is an older home and needs constant maintenance.

But the new home would be a palace for my family one like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof imagined for his bride.

A place that in mind is flawless and perfect because I would want nothing but the best for my bride.

What God wanted to give Israel and by extension all people of the world was His absolute best.

He did not want people in a Satellite location but on the main campus right in His presence.

I am sure some of these persecuted Jewish believers thought, “Okay, but his Temple is up there and we are down here, where do I go to get close to God.” Rabbi Paul says wherever you go, God main campus is right there all you have to do is approach God with faith.

There is an invisible but powerful Temple that surrounds you and you are invited to approach God with confidence and boldness.

Transition: I am sure for some who had read or heard this letter as a sermon were still wondering, “Why do we need a new chapter in this love story?

Why can’t we just be in the old love story in a new kind of way?”

The New Love Story Anticipated (8:7-8a)

The old love story could not fix what was broken between God and man.

What the Law required man could not do without a radical renewal of the heart.

God gave them so many convincing external proofs.

They saw miracles in Egypt but did not believe God at the Red Sea.