Hebrews
Lesson 6 March 24, 2005
NKJ Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God,9 not of works, lest anyone
should boast.
Open your Bibles to Hebrews
1:1. We may be in these first four
verses for a number of weeks because they are jam packed with crucial
foundational references – references that most people don’t fully understand. Each phrase and each clause is loaded
with doctrinal significance and doctrinal impact much of which is developed in
the rest of this epistle. So we will take some time laying the foundation,
going through this clause-by-clause.
We are beginning with the key clause. These four verses represent one sentence in the original
Greek. The main idea is that God
has spoken. God is mentioned in
the first verse. He is the subject
of the verb spoken that you have in the second verse. The subject of these verses is God. The main verb is spoken. The main thrust of these four verses is
that God has spoken to us by means of His Son. Everything else in these four verses expands on that
idea. The main idea is that He has
spoken to us in these last days by means of His Son.
Before he makes that statement, the
writer reminds us that God spoke previously. What he will develop in the first chapter is that the
previous revelation was not complete. It was a partial revelation. It was not a complete revelation. It is not as full as the revelation
that comes with finality in the person of the Son.
Corrected Translation: After God spoke in various fragments
and in a variety of forms in time past to the fathers by means of the prophets,
In a nutshell he is talking about
Old Testament revelation. He talks
about the fact that God revealed Himself and that revelation was fragmentary
and that it involved a variety of forms.
It was by means of the prophets.
We saw in Deuteronomy 13 and
Deuteronomy 18 that there were two tests outlined in those two chapters to
indicate how you could evaluate a claim to God speaking. Many people say that God spoke through
them. Mohammed said that God spoke
through him. Joseph Smith says God
spoke to him. All kinds of folks
who have come along in history make the claim that God has spoken through
them. Just because they make that
claim even if it is backed up by miracles, signs, wonders and some fulfilled
prophecy; God warns the Jews that the first test is doctrinal consistency. What they say must be consistent with
what is already revealed. In that
passage God says that someone may come along with dreams or miracles. The issue isn’t that there were
miracles. There may be miracles.
But it is not the miracles. It is
the message. If the message
doesn’t fit with what was previously revealed, then he is a false prophet.
In Deuteronomy 18 the issue is
prophecy. If the claim to speak
prophecy isn’t fulfilled 100 percent, then the person is to be executed. Those
are the two tests. What it tells
us on the bottom line is that the statement “God says this” is a serious,
serious statement that carries a weight of obligation on the person that the
statement of God is addressed to.
This is not something where you wake up and read Proverbs and say, “God
spoke to me.” When God speaks in
the Old Testament it is a weighty thing.
It is an important thing.
We traced God speaking through
Genesis 1. We saw the statement
that God said, “Let there be light.”
It is a verbal statement.
It was not something that God thought. He said it out loud. When you come to Hebrews 11:2, it is not the Greek
word logos that we find in other
places. It is the synonym reima. It is
not just the word in abstract. It
is the spoken word. The worlds
were framed by the spoken word of God in Hebrews 11:2. He speaks in a manner that can be
recorded. It can be
objectified. We have looked at a
number of passages where God spoke.
That is not to say that God never spoke in a private way. We saw one example of that with the
older prophet in I Kings 13. The
principle was that whenever God does anything in private, He always validates
it through some form of confirmatory miracle or fulfillment of the prophecy as
we have in that particular situation.
The revelation of God is not like the revelation of other gods and other
religions. It can be
validated. It can be
verified. It can be
authenticated. It has objective
criterion. So you apply that. All through the Old Testament you had
the ongoing operation of prophets.
If you look at Hebrews 1:1, we have
Old Testament revelation. Verse
two then talks about New Testament revelation. Starting in verse three and into verse four, the focus
shifts from God speaking to the qualifications of the Son through whom He
speaks. That is the shift. Then
that is developed in verse 5 down through the end of the chapter. This establishes the criterion and bona
fides of the Son of God and why He is the One through whom God spoke. It is stated with such emphasis that it
carries with it the implicit idea of finality. This isn’t an overt statement so you can’t say that Hebrews
1 proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that New Testament revelation was going to
cease. But, it is implicit in the
argument. This argument doesn’t
make sense if God is going to continue reveal Himself in special revelation
down through the Church Age.
General revelation is the
non-verbal, non-spoken, non-specific revelation of God, usually through His
creation.
NKJ Psalm 19:1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of
David. The heavens declare the glory of God; And
the firmament shows His handiwork.
We learn certain things about God by
looking at the affects of what He has done. That is non-verbal revelation. You
can’t base doctrine on general revelation. You have to have special revelation. Special revelation is verbal and
specific. It is based on the
very words of God.
The mentality that is out there in
the Pentecostal movement is that the words get in the way of people worshipping
God. They think that people spend
too much time worrying about the words.
But, we don’t know anything about the Lord without the words. People want to get together and hug
each other and sing a few songs that make them feel good. They think that to go forward you must
reject any deep theological study.
They think that it will just lead to division. That is the mentality that is out there. That is that words get in the way of
worshipping the Lord. That is just
the opposite of what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches us that we have to understand the words. The Bible is
not inspired in terms of images or ideas or concepts. Ideas and concepts can shift with the words. When you change the word “red” to
“crimson”, you change the image in a person’s mind. Words are important because they communicate ideas. God
inspired the words through the Holy Spirit.
What we see in the first few verses
of Hebrews is picked up again. The author moves to establish why the words of
the Son are superior to anything else.
That implies a finality because after the Son
there can’t be anything that equals that.
Look at Hebrews 2.
NKJ Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the
things we have heard, lest we drift away.
2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward,
3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
to us by those who heard Him,
4 God also bearing witness both with signs and
wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His
own will?
This is the application of the first
chapter. Hebrews is a five-point
sermon. Each point has a doctrinal
development and exposition followed by an exhortation or challenge to
application. The challenge to the
first point is given in verses 1-4.
“Therefore” indicates a
conclusion. That He has spoken is
the main idea of the first chapter.
This is serious. You just
can’t take it for granted because you have doctrine everyday. This is the most significant thing in
all of history. No one else has
had the kind of teaching that is available today. Yet, because it is so available we tend to take it for
granted. The idea of getting a tape
later because something else has come up is trivializing the Word of God. This is the most significant thing in
the world. God has spoken. Jesus asked Peter why he was still
hanging around. Everyone else was
gone. Peter answered, “Because You
have the words of eternal life.”
Nothing else matters in life except understanding doctrine. When it is all said and done, you
can’t take the toys with you. You are left with the doctrine in your soul. So the writer of Hebrews says that we
should be diligent.
If the issue is that if the message
of the angels which was a fragmentary, lesser revelation carried with it
weighty consequences of retribution for disobedience and blessing for
obedience; then what do you think about the New Testament revelation that comes
by a superior source, the Son? If
God wallops the Jews as seriously as He did and they had an inferior, limited,
partial revelation; then how much more will He wallop us in the Church Age if
we neglect this message?
That is verse three. How
will we escape punishment if we neglect so great a salvation? Everybody takes this verse out of
context. They think it talks about
phase one justification salvation – the great message that we have
salvation from the penalty of sin by faith alone in Christ alone. But, that is not how the writer uses
the word sozo. He talks about the whole package
especially its ultimate realization in phase three when we are absent from the
body and face to face with the Lord in front of the Judgment Seat of Christ
ready to receive our rewards and our evaluation for what we have done to
prepare us for service in the kingdom.
See how these four verses fit the
first four verses of chapter one.
The remarkable thing is that in
three and half years of ministry on the earth, Christ didn’t write a
thing. Who wrote it? The apostles. The delegation of the writing responsibility was given to
the apostles. That is the point in the next verse. It validated their authority. It was specifically a criterion for apostolic ministry.
What we see is that God gives a
fragmentary revelation in the Old Testament that carries with it certain
consequences. These consequences
are intensified because now it comes through the Son. But the Son doesn’t record it. He delegates it to a specific group of people called
apostles. They are the foundation
of the New Testament. What is
implicit in the statement is that when they are off the scene, there is no more
special revelation. When they are
off the scene, there is no more of God speaking as He did in the Old Testament
and New Testament in terms of special revelation. You can say that God spoke to you through His word. That is valid. He speaks only through His word today.
The more technical term for this is the illumination of the Holy Spirit as we
have seen.
The focal point has been to look at
the dynamics of revelation in the Old Testament. As you go through the Old
Testament, you see that revelation was verifiable and objective. You could
validate it. But it ended at a
particular point in time. There is
a purpose to revelation. God
doesn’t reveal Himself to satisfy our curiosity. God only reveals Himself at His volition not at man’s
volition. If you lived in Old
Testament times, you could go out in the wilderness and fast and pray; but God
would reveal Himself when He wants to reveal Himself because of His purposes in
the unfolding, progressive disclosure of Himself in the Old Testament. When that body of knowledge was
complete, God was silent. He was
silent for 400 years. Malachi was
the last revelation given in the Old Testament. It sets a precedent. God doesn’t have to speak all the
time. It reaches a point when the
body of knowledge is complete and He is silent.
What happens in the New
Testament? Then God spoke through
His Son. New revelation began at
the point where Gabriel appeared to Mary and to Joseph, in the announcement of
the birth of John the Baptist as the herald of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then
the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So you have new revelation, but this is the revelation that
comes through the Son who is the ultimate revelation of God the Father and who
God is.
NKJ John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The
only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
The inscripturation
of that revelation is given through the apostles. They are the foundation of the church.
How do we know that revelation has
ceased? This is a big
question. It is crucial. How do we know it stopped? How do we know that there aren’t
apostles today? How do we know
that there aren’t prophets today?
How do we know that revelatory responsibility didn’t continued down
through the ages? What gives us
the right to say that the canon is closed? Why isn’t it just open? Many people today run around and claim that God is speaking
to them and that these gifts did not cease. Some say that the gift of apostleship did not
cease.
Peter Wagner was the head of the
missions department at Fuller Seminary.
When Fuller was founded it was solid theologically. They threw out the doctrine of
inerrancy in the mid-sixties.
Peter Wagner came on board.
When you throw out inerrancy, eventually theology starts getting fluid
because the Bible may not be fully the Word of God. Or, there may be more. By the late 1980’s he got involved in
the Signs and Wonders movement or the vineyard movement. They had a class at Fuller Seminary on
signs and wonders. They were trying
to learn how to do miracles. They were trying to give sight to the blind and
raise people from the dead. It was
on the fringe of the charismatic movement at the time. It gave birth to some other
sub-movements such as the Kansas City Prophets. It gets wilder and wilder and wilder.
Then in the early 90’s a group
called the Toronto Blessing developed.
This goes beyond the second blessing. They would laugh in the Spirit. They would run around the church until they fell down. They would cackle like hyenas and bark
like dogs. This came out of the vineyard movement. It goes on and on and on. You feel like there is demonic activity everywhere.
This is where we are in evangelical
Christianity today. Peter Wagner
now claims to be an apostle. There
is a resurrected apostleship today.
He has a group of charismatic pastors around the country who are part of
the Council for the New Apostle.
So we are going to get new revelation.
So how do we know that revelation
has ceased? You will be asked this
question. They will ask you how
you know that God is not speaking anymore. Take people back to Deuteronomy 13 and show them that God
lets this happen to test them to see if they are going to love the Lord their
God or follow this stuff and that they are failing the test. They won’t like it. Take them gently through these
passages. How did you evaluate the
evidence? Is there any objective
evidence that they are 100% true?
You go through the criterion.
You have to figure out how to present a case. The issue is that God has revealed how He will function and
operate in different dispensations.
He reveals Himself in different ways at different times.
How do you demonstrate that
revelation has ceased? You go to I
Corinthians 13. In context,
chapter 12 talks about the spiritual gifts. It lists them out.
Apostles are first.
Prophets are second. Then it goes down through the list. It has revelatory gifts and service
gifts. It has miraculous and service gifts. The Corinthians were all distorted
on the importance and significance of the spiritual gifts. They elevated tongues. It had to do with their background in
ecstatic utterance coming out of the pagan religions and the worship of
Apollo. Speaking in ecstatic
gibberish was the standard modus operandi for many of the mystery religions.
That was the pagan frame of reference that the Corinthians brought to
tongues. They did not understand
that when God said they would speak in languages, it was not ecstatic
utterances. It was real languages.
When you get to chapter 13, Paul has been arguing that the real priority is not
what spiritual gift you have. It
is having unconditional love for one another in the body of Christ. And so he defines love in the
first 7 verses. And then he is
going to emphasize the priority of love over the spiritual gifts.
NKJ 1 Corinthians
13:8 Love never fails. But whether there
are prophecies, they will fail; whether there
are tongues, they will cease; whether there
is knowledge, it will vanish away.
Now what we see in verse 8 are two
points. First of all, there is a
contrast between the permanence of love and the impermanence of the revelatory
gifts of prophecy and knowledge.
The gift of tongues is secondary in this passage. The focus is on prophecy and knowledge. You have to catch this. The issue is
that love is permanent but these gifts are temporary. That is the point.
But, how temporary are they?
The second point that we need to
observe here is that prophecy and knowledge are both said to be abolished. The Greek word is katargeo. It is used with both of these
gifts. Prophecy is going to be
abolished. Knowledge is going to
be abolished. Sandwiched in
between is the statement that tongues will cease. It is a different verb and it
is in a different voice in the Greek.
It stands out.
Love never fails. The Greek verb is pipto and it means that it is not
going to falter. It is
permanent. The Greek verb for
cease is pauo
in the future middle indicative.
What is significant is the change of voice. There is no reason to change the voice. By changing the voice and verb, the
author says that whatever happens with tongues will precede whatever happens
with prophecy and knowledge. So by the time they pass off the scene, you know
that tongues has already passed off the scene. That is what is implicit here. The gift of tongues is not our point tonight. It is revelation. Prophecy and knowledge will go
away. The two things in verse 8
are permanence of love verses the impermanence of these two gifts. They will be abolished.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 13:9 For we know in
part and we prophesy in part.;
What are we talking about in this
verse? We are talking about the
spiritual gift of prophecy and the spiritual gift of knowledge. We said that they would be abolished. Now we learn something about their
characteristic. They are in
part. The Greek is ek merous. They are partial or fragmentary. It means that Paul didn’t know
everything that there was to know about New Testament Church Age revelation. He only knew part of it. He had part of the picture. Peter had another part of the picture.
John had another part of the picture.
Jude had another part.
James had another part. But
all were needed in the body of Christ to give the complete and sufficient
revelation of the New Testament.
Those who had the spiritual gift of knowledge didn’t see the whole
picture. They only had a piece of
the puzzle. The same thing it true
with those who prophesy.
NKJ 1 Corinthians
13:10 But when that
which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away
The verse adds something new. What is in part? We have ek merous again. The partial is knowledge and prophesy. Was tongues said to be partial? No. We are talking about knowledge and
prophecy. We have katargeo
again. The Greek ties these
concepts together. It is all
connected.
What is the perfect? Something called “the perfect” will
stop them. The Greek word is teleios. So the
perfect replaces the partial – knowledge and prophecy. At that point they are abolished. That is what karargeo means. So when the perfect comes, the partial
is abolished. That is the
question. When does the perfect
come? Has it come already or is it
in the future? There are a couple
of views.
Let’s review where we are. First of all there is significance in
the shift of verbs and voice in verse 8 from katargeo to pauo. Secondly, we have to understand the meaning of the perfect teleios in verse
10. That is what ends the partial.
What is the perfect? Then
there is a temporal shift in verses 12 and 13 from “now” to “then”. We have to pay attention to that. Fourth, we have to understand the next
two verses because they are illustrative.
Those are the interpretive keys to the passage.
There are 7 interpretations of “the
perfect”. There are really two
categories.
Technically what this means is
quantitative. You have a small
quantity that is incomplete. It
will be completed. It is imperfect
and will become perfect.
There are two views in the first
group that are taught. They really
connect together.
What makes the church mature is the
completed canon. It moves from
immaturity in the apostolic age because it has an incomplete canon. So they really connect together. They are different sides of the same
coin.
The perfection group thinks that it
refers to a flawless condition. It
boils down to being face to face with the Lord whether you are talking about
death, the rapture, or the Second Coming.
They don’t nail the timing down. The idea is that it happens when you are no longer in
the mortal body.
NKJ 1 Corinthians
13:11 When I
was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a
child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish
things.
This is the basic illustrative
overview. The point is that there
is a transition between childhood and adulthood. When you are a child you act like a child. Certain things are characteristic of
being a child that are no longer present in the life
of an adult. You put away the
childish things. That is all that
Paul is saying here. There is a
transition. Once you become mature
you put away things that are characteristic of childhood. That is the analogy that he is using. Revelation was necessary in the infancy
of the church because they didn’t have a complete canon. Once the cannon was complete, they
don’t need to have those gifts continue.
NKJ 1 Corinthians
13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but
then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am
known.
He uses the Greek word arti for
now. In the next verse a different
Greek word is used for now. The
“now” in the next verse is a different Greek word, nuni. What is the difference? There is a lot of similarity and overlap between the two
synonyms. But when they are used
in the same context, arti
means the immediate now. Nuni is used in a
broader, general sense. It is now
in the pre-canon period verses now in the Church Age. It distinguishes an immediate right now today from now in
this age.
So Paul says that right now we see
in a mirror dimly. But then when
the canon is complete we will see fact-to-face. Everybody wants to take face to face as being face to face
with the Lord. It can’t be if you
care about Scripture. It is face
to face with the Word.
The first half of the verse deals
with prophecy. The second half
deals with knowledge. Right now I
know in part. We see ek merous
again. It ties back to knowledge
being partial.
When is the “then”? It is when the perfect comes. It will complete something that is
incomplete. Knowledge and prophecy
are incomplete.
The first thing we have to recognize
is what we see in a mirror. You
see yourself. This is a reflecting glass.
The next word is enigma. It is used in the LXX to translate a word in Numbers
12:6-8. God speaks to Moses.
NKJ Numbers 12:6 Then He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in
a vision; I speak to him in a dream.
7
Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house.
8 I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form
of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak
against My servant Moses?
Enigma has to do with the uncertainness of
the application or fulfillment of prophetic sayings. What I Corinthians 13 is saying is that at this time we see
in a mirror enigmatically. We
don’t know how all the parts fit together yet. “Then” is when the mirror is complete. It has got to be revelation.
You have two periods in the Church
Age. You have a pre-canon
apostolic period when revelation is given and the canon is built from AD
33-95. Then you have a post
apostolic period in the Church Age from 95 AD on.
NKJ 1 Corinthians
13:13 And now
abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
This verse opens it up. People stop there and emote on how
great love is. But pay attention.
The issue through this whole passage is when does the perfect come? What is the difference between the
“now” and the “then”? When
do we decide that the “now” is over with and we are now living in the “then”
when we are face to face? If you
take the qualitative view that it has to do with being face to face with the
Lord, then you have to say is that now faith, hope and love are
continuing. Knowledge and prophecy
continue. In that view knowledge
and prophecy continue until the perfect comes – death or the Second Coming. If we are talking about the permanence
of love versus the impermanence of knowledge and prophecy, then what you say in
their position is that prophecy and knowledge continue all the way to the time
Jesus comes back. But so are
faith, hope, and love. But then
knowledge and prophecy will cease when Jesus comes back because we will be in
His presence. In their view faith,
hope, and love have to continue beyond that point. This is my point.
Faith, hope, and love can’t continue beyond the point of the Second
Coming. So, there has to be a
different dividing point.
II Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk
by faith and not sight. But when
we are in the presence of the Lord we will walk by sight and not by faith. Faith is limited to this time on
earth.
Hebrews 11:3 says that faith is the
evidence of things not seen. Once you are dead you will see. You will be face to face with the
Lord. So faith can’t continue beyond
the Second Coming.
The charismatic position is that
knowledge and prophecy continue all the way up to the Second Coming. Faith, hope, and love would have to
continue beyond that because of the context. The passage is saying that love is permanent. Knowledge and prophecy are
impermanent. If after we die and
are face-to-face and faith is no longer operational; then we have to recognize
that on the basis Romans 8:24, hope isn’t operational after we are face to face
with the Lord either.
NKJ Romans 8:24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen
is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
Once you see the Lord come, hope
ends. Hope is confident
expectation about your future destiny.
When our future destiny is realized, hope is no longer there. It is realized. So hope and faith end with the Second
Coming.
The thing that continues beyond that
is love. That means that whatever
ends prophecy and knowledge, it must come a long time before death or the
rapture or the Second Advent. That
means that some event in time must end prophecy and knowledge. The only event that it can be is the
completed canon. James 1:23,25
says that the completed canon is perfect.
NKJ James 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,
he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he
observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but
a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
The point is that I Corinthians 13
clearly shows that revelatory gifts ended. This is also based on Eph 2:20. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. You only lay a
foundation once. You don’t lay it
in every generation. Otherwise it
is not a foundation. It was laid in the first century. Once the foundation was laid then there
is no ongoing revelation. It is
over with.
This is so critical today because
people continue to say that there is new revelation.
There is an iceberg of ongoing revelatory charismatic revelation that lies behind popular books today. If you don’t know that you may think you can get something good out of them. They lead to the devil’s blue print of trying to live your own life.