Hebrews
Lesson 15 June 23,
2005
NKJ Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the
LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5
Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.
We need to remember that Jesus
Christ controls history and works things out according to His plans and
purposes.
Verse 1 After God spoke in a variety of fragments and in various
forms in time past to the fathers by means of the prophets
Verse 2 He has in these last days spoken to
us by His Son whom He has appointed heir of all things through whom also He
made the ages
Verse 3 Who being the radiance of His glory
and the express image of His person and upholding all
things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The contrast between verse 1 and
verse 2 is the partial fragmentary revelation of the Old Testament to and
through the Jewish prophets and to the Jewish patriarchs in contrast with the
complete and full revelation given through the Son. Even though the Son didn’t
write and give us the New Testament, it is through His emissaries the apostles
who are the foundation of the church that we have the written revelation. The
Son is the full and complete revelation of the Lord. That’s the contrast. In the middle of verse 2 there is
a shift. The shift begins to talk about the significance of the Son.
There are seven things said about
the Son.
This is where we are headed. Look at
the chiasm. In a chiasm you have one side of an X so that the center of the X
is the focal point. The other statements function like a frame. So it is a literary device to focus our
attention on something.
This is the backdrop for understanding
the whole book of Hebrews. I don’t think anybody has brought that out. Some
people have gotten close. In the studies that I have done the last few years
several things have come together in my own thinking on this. I think a lot of
people have hinted at this. In my
thinking it seems to get focused and tight on this particular issue related to
the ascension and session of Christ. So the focus is on the Son as Messianic
King. In the last verse of the introduction we’ll see that He is higher than
the angels and He obtains an inheritance that is more excellent than they. It’s
this whole idea of the Son’s inheritance that is the bull’s eye on the target
of the message of Hebrews. The Son is given an inheritance. He has not realized
it yet; it is still off in the future. But He is the designated heir.
To give you a bird’s eye view of
this whole message, Jesus Christ is designated the Son of God. He is the Son of God. The theologians
from the time of Nicea have referred to that
phraseology “the eternally begotten Son”. People sometimes want to debate
whether that is the best term or not. It is the theologically accepted term
that has been around for 1600 years of church history. I don’t think we need to
go back and debate that. It is clear within the Council of Nicea
and the Creed of Nicea that when they talk about the
fact that He is begotten He is not made. It is not a birth term. It has to do
with the fact that 10 quadrillion of years before God ever created a creature,
Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, the eternal Son of God, was
being continuously begotten by the Father. That is a term that expresses that
father-son relationship. That
father-son relationship is inherent to their individual personhood within the
trinity. That the first person is the Father and the second person is the Son are not pragmatic terms that are related to the incarnation.
The Son isn’t the Son because He was born by the Virgin Mary. That relates to
His humanity. He is the Son by virtue of His eternal relationship to the
Father. He is eternally begotten by the Father. He is
and always has been the Son of God. There is a doctrine we are going to have to
get into a little bit.
We see that eternally the second
person of the trinity is the Son of God. As the Son of God He is higher than
the angels, isn’t He? As the Son of God He has all power and all authority. But
what we see in relation to the ascension and session is that the second person
of the trinity is elevated at the ascension over the angels. He is given
authority over all things. If that authority and that power are His by virtue
of His being the Son of God eternally, then when we talk about Him acquiring
this position it has to relate to a different Sonship.
What He acquires in that other Sonship that relates
to two titles, that He is the Son of Man and the Son of David. It relates to
the Davidic Covenant and that eternal dynasty through David that we see the
significance. As the Son of Man He goes through His human life dealing with
every problem and every adversity and everything that He suffers and passes the
test qualifying Him to go to the cross. He sets the template, example, and
pattern how we as Church Age believers are to handle all the tests, trials,
adversities and suffering that we encounter in life.
By virtue of His passing all of that,
He was designated the heir. This is a technical term. The heirship
relates to the nations. We will look at this in verse 5 and 6. In Ps 2:8 at the
present time He is to be praying to God. He is asking God for the nations to be
given to Him as an inheritance.
Right now at the session Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the
Father is doing one thing that is never talked about. He is our mediator. He is
our advocate. He is our high priest.
But He is doing something else. He is praying. He is asking the Father
to give Him the nations as His inheritance. When we think of the session, we need to think of the other
aspects of His priesthood. I am not diminishing them but they are related to
this request that He is making about His inheritance. If we follow the Lord
Jesus Christ and become co-sufferers with Him as Romans 8 mentions that we will
co-reign with Him. This same thing that is happening during the session related
to His high ministry priesthood toward us in our spiritual growth sanctification
ministry is directly related to what is going on in His session and ultimately
in what happens when He gets His inheritance. He is preparing us to rule and
reign with Him. Now we understand all that. We have been taught this again and
again. But I am coming at this from a little different perspective. What it
tells us is that Jesus Christ is building right now the leadership team that He
is going to operate with when He returns in His kingdom. That is part of the
priestly ministry. When He comes back, we are going to reign as priests and
kings. We’re in boot camp right now. We’re in our basic training session to
develop capacity to rule and reign with Him when He comes back as the Messianic
King to take possession of that inheritance.
The book of Hebrews comes along and
keeps talking about the session. In almost every section or division of this
epistle there is a reference to the ascension and session of Christ. Now why is
that? It is foundational to the whole exhortation or challenge of this book for
believers to persevere in the midst of testing, trials, and adversity. Don’t
give up the faith. Don’t relinquish doctrine. Keep making doctrine a priority
in your life. Don’t let the details of life crowd out your scale of
values. Don’t let the pressures
and adversities of life shift your priorities so that you give up on your
Christian growth and your forward advance. This is what is happening.
The interesting thing is that in all
the New Testament the only book that deals with the High priestly ministry of
the Lord Jesus Christ is the book of Hebrews. Paul never mentions it. He never
develops it. It is nowhere in the Pauline epistles. John does not talk about it
in any of his books. There are various allusions and references in Paul and
John to heirship and inheritance and future ruling
and reigning destiny, but it is left under the providence of God to the writer
of Hebrews to expound on the significance of this high priestly ministry.
This is important because every
commentary you read focuses on Christ as superior. That is the message of
Hebrews. Because Christ is superior we are supposed to persevere. The message
to these Jews in the first century is that they want to fall back in the old
ritual system. Usually it is presented that the thrust of Hebrews is don’t give
up the ship and go back to Judaism because Jesus is superior to Judaism. That
is a major thrust and theme in this whole epistle. But we need to factor in the
significance of the session. This is central to understanding this whole argument
in Hebrews and what the writer is trying to get across is what is happening in
the session with relationship to the future inheritance and possession and how
that needs to radically impact how you and I look at what we do everyday.
When we wake up in the morning how
do we envision the things we’re doing that day. Are we just going through the
same old drill day in and day out that we normally do? Or do we have a
significant understanding of the fact that we are being trained day in and day
out to apply doctrine to situations so that the Holy Spirit can build Christ’s
character in us so that we are then qualified in the Millennial Kingdom to rule
and reign with Jesus Christ? This is what your personal sense of your eternal
destiny is all about. The future should be so real to you in terms of where
you’re headed that it changes your priority structure today and it changes what
you are doing with your 70+ years on the earth. That is what the writer of Hebrews is getting at.
So we are coming to this last
section in verse 3 that He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. What
is the significance of that particular phrase?
Vs. 3
He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
This comes after He made
purification or after He Himself made the cleansing for our sins. The sitting
down is not simply a sign of completion of the work on the cross. It is that,
but it is more than that. He is sitting down because He has to wait on
something. That comes out through a study of the Doctrine of the Ascension.
At the cross He made purification
for our sins.
That is the Greek word katharismos that
is related to the verb katharizo,
the noun katharos–
all of which relate to sanctification or purification or cleansing. That is
what is necessary for sinful fallen creatures to do in order to maintain
fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just love it when God’s plan
starts to come together in a lot of interesting ways. I was asked to teach Old
Testament survey at the College of Biblical Studies. One of the Old Testament
books I have to teach is Leviticus. Leviticus is also foundational to Hebrews. I
always wanted to teach a series combining Hebrews and Leviticus. One of the key
issues in Leviticus is sanctification.
What is interesting and I never realized this until last week that the
Hebrew word kaphar
is usually translated cover. That is the standard term. In some cases it
probably has that idea. Modern
studies have indicated through the use of comparative linguistics especially
Acadian to see the etymological parallels that the word kaphar probably has the meaning
of rubbing out, cleansing, or purification. This is probably the main idea. Kaphar is usually
translated in the Old Testament under the word atonement in English. What is
really fascinating about this particular word is that for the most part, when
the Jewish translators who took the Hebrew Masoretic
Text and translated it into the LXX when they made the translation they
translated the word kaphar with the katharizo word group in terms of
cleansing.
We think of cleansing primarily in
terms of post salvation cleansing from sin. That is what you see again and again
in Old Testament symbolism. The priest has to cleanse himself when he washes
his hand and his feet at the laver before he goes into tabernacle service. A
number of the sacrifices are said to be cleansing.
If you start with Leviticus 1, the
first offering is a burnt offering. We often tie a burnt offering to salvation.
It is used in the New Testament as that picture. One of the other things we
have to realize is that when this was written in Leviticus 1, it’s talking to
Israel as an already redeemed nation. Think about that. The main thrust of
these sacrifices some of which we think of primarily as salvation related are
sacrifices are given to the nation that is already viewed as a redeemed nation.
What this indicates as much as anything is not simply cleansing at salvation,
but post salvation cleansing.
Even the Day of Atonement is a Day
of Atonement that is to be observed by whom? An Israel that
is still in slavery in Egypt? Or by an Israel that has been redeemed
from slavery in Egypt? Do you see
the significance here? So modern studies are bringing out dimensions of these
words that give us a whole new insight. It is not something that is brand new. When
we go back and see that the ancient Jewish scribes 200 years before Christ were
translating this as a cleansing which we think of as a post salvation
sanctification concept that maybe that is the main thrust of these sacrifices.
That is not to take away from the fact that they also have a phase 1 salvation
impact as well or message. They serve double duty. We are cleansed twice,
aren’t we? Actually more than that but there are two types of cleansing.
There is a salvation cleansing that
takes place at the instant of faith alone in Christ alone when we are positionally cleansed. Then there is the second category of
cleansing; the on-gong experiential sanctification cleansing that takes place. The
writer of Hebrews reminds us that He made purification for our sins. Once that
is accomplished then he moves into stage 2 in His plan - waiting for the ultimate fulfillment
of that inheritance promise.
He sits down at the right hand of
God the Father.
The Greek word there is the aorist
active indicative of kathizo
that means to sit down or to take one’s seat. It is a passive position. He is not actively ruling. He is not on the throne of David. This is clear from Revelation 3.
NKJ Revelation 3:21 "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My
Father on His throne.
The overcomer
will sit with Him on His throne - not David’s throne.
“My throne” is in the Millennial
Kingdom.
The present sitting of Christ is not
on the Davidic throne.
A-millennial theologians see it as the Davidic throne. The New
Progressive dispensationalism that has come out of
Dallas Seminary and Talbot and other places sees Jesus sitting on the Davidic
throne right now in heaven. That is why we get so upset about this as
traditional dispensationalists who believe in the literal interpretation of
Scripture. That is not interpreting scripture literally. These progression
dispensationalists are beginning to interpret these passages in the same allegorical
symbolic way that amillennialists have historically
said.
Let’s look at the ascension and
session. Let’s start reviewing that going point by point through the doctrine
of the ascension and session. The ascension took place 40 days after the crucifixion
of Christ. The central passage is in Acts 1:7-10.
NKJ Acts 1:7 And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times
or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8
"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the end of the earth." 9 Now when He had spoken these things,
while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their
sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went
up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
They had just asked the questions,
“Is the kingdom coming now? Is
this the time?”
Jesus doesn’t tell them they are
dummies. He doesn’t tell them that they are wrong and it will be a spiritual
kingdom. He doesn’t correct their understanding that the kingdom is yet future.
We have seen that Paul uses the same
phraseology “times and seasons” when he wrote to the Thessalonians. He tells
them that they have already been taught the times and the seasons. That tells
us that somewhere between Acts 1:7 and I Thessalonians
4 the church has been taught about the times and seasons. They were taught
about the rapture. They were taught about the dispensation of the Church Age. But
at this instant, the right before the ascension of Christ, it wasn’t the right
time for them to know.
What is getting ready to happen? Jesus
is getting ready to leave, isn’t He? This is His final statement to the
disciples. It is wait here until the Holy Spirit comes.
This gives a mission statement to
the church as a whole body down through the generations. They started in Jerusalem. Then there
was persecution and they got scattered and went to Samaria and Judea. Then
there was more persecution. The Apostle Paul and Peter and others began to go
to the outermost part of the earth. We are still doing it.
NKJ Acts 1:11 who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand
gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus,
who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw
Him go into heaven."
Two angels address the disciples. They
are standing there with their mouths hanging open. They just saw Jesus
physically and bodily take off and go up through the sky. This took place on
the Mt. of Olives. He will come back in the same way. He left in a physical
way. He will return in a physical way. He left in resurrection body. He will
return in resurrection body. He
left identified as the individual, Jesus of Nazareth. He will return that way. He
is not returning as the Holy Spirit. He is not returning in some cloud of
judgment as predorists argue that happened in 70 AD when Judea was taken out under the fifth cycle of discipline. He is
going to come back to the same place, to the Mt. of Olives. He is going to move
from the Mt. of Olives to the East Gate and come into Jerusalem and then He
will take His place as the Davidic King. So He is going to come back in the
same way.
When we look at this we see a major
shift from what appeared to be God’s plan in the Old Testament. We have to
answer certain questions.
Why did Christ have to ascend at
all? Why did He go up and come back with an angelic army and establish His
rule? Why didn’t He just establish His rule without leaving? The angels could appear and He could
establish His rule. Why did He have to leave? What is going on here? Why not
just begin the kingdom?
Why did Christ have to ascend before
the sending the Holy Spirit? There is this direct relationship indicated in
John 16:7.
NKJ John 16:7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your
advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to
you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
That ought to set off all kinds of
bells and whistles in back of your mind if you are paying attention. This tells
us that some thing unique is happening here in relation to the Holy Spirit. We
come to this from our dispensational orientation automatically we should
recognize that certain things are going on here that we can only explain dispensationally. That is why no one has done much to tap
the significance of the session of Christ in the ways that we are doing that.
You can’t see things if you are not approaching the Scripture from a
pre-millennial, pre-tribulational, dispensational
framework holding to a consistent literal interpretation of Scripture.
Why did Christ have to ascend before
giving the spiritual gifts? Ephesians 4 emphasizes this. He gives these
leadership gifts. The only ones that survive are pastor-teacher and evangelists.
Why did He have to ascend before He gave those gifts? Those gifts function in
relation to this ascent of Christ and His session.
All of this is explained and
understood when we see how it all fits together. I am not going into every nook
and cranny of this doctrine in the next few weeks because we will see it again
and again as we go through Hebrews. I am gong to unpack this gradually.
NKJ 1 Peter 1:10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully,
who prophesied of the grace that would
come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the
Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
The Old Testament taught that but the
Jews didn’t appreciate it. They saw that one coming and did not make that
distinction. If they had made that distinction, they might have wondered
why. That is one reason why the
Church Age wasn’t revealed. The Church Age wasn’t revealed in the Old Testament
because the Jews would have had some indication of their own failure. So this
means that they had a legitimate choice to accept the Messiah when He came and
the kingdom could have come in when Jesus Christ offered it to them. We know
that they didn’t. God has real contingency in His plan. So the kingdom was
presented. You see this pattern in all the gospels, at least the synoptics – Mathew, Mark and Luke. From the
incarnation to the end of His second year, there is the offer of the kingdom. Then
there is this rejection of the king that crystallizes in the Pharisees accusing
Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub.
Jesus calls it the blasphemy of the
Holy Spirit. So the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not simply denial that
Jesus Christ is your Savior. You can’t blaspheme against the Holy Spirit today.
It was a historically conditioned sin. I believe it was historically
conditioned to that time only. The Jews rejected him and that was blasphemy of
the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 12,
Jesus spells out that there were serious consequences and that is what happened
in AD 70. Israel goes out under the fifth cycle of
discipline. So He began the ministry with the offer of the kingdom. There is a
rejection of the King. This leads to the crucifixion of the King. It is foundational to understanding
everything related to the session, your inheritance and your spiritual life. We
just can’t escape it. This is foundational.
I know that there are some people
that when we get into this study it brings in so much that your head starts
spinning. That is why you have to hear it again and again. I have taught this
about 6 times. Each time I can synthesize it a little better. Each time I go
through this it is like the Lord taking out a 2 x 4 and hitting me on the head
with it to get my attention on a few things. It opens up so much in terms of
understanding the spiritual life today and what is going on. This is why
prophecy is important. Prophecy has to do with what the end goal is and what is
going to happen tomorrow eschatologically speaking. That
is tomorrow in terms of the next age or dispensation. When we get a clear fix of that in our head, then it begins
to change the way that we live today.
This is an extremely mundane example
for those of you who struggle with the extra pound or two. If we had a clear vision of what we
would look like if we stuck with a diet for a few months, it would be a lot
easier to exercise that discipline in the mean time. Once you get that set in
your head, it makes it a lot easier. That is the idea here. As a believer if
you get a solid mental picture of what is going to happen after you die and
what your eternal destiny is; it focuses you on what you are doing now. There
are a lot of mundane issues in life that we get so bent out of shape over and
spend so much time being distracted with that would disappear. Then we see what
has happened to Ulan and we realize that we spend a whole lot of time on things
that are not essential. We have to
understand this kingdom issue.
NKJ Matthew 3:2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
NKJ Matthew 4:17 From that
time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand."
The disciples were sent out to teach.
NKJ Matthew 10:6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.
Notice it’s not to the gentiles, but to Israel. What do you think is
going on? The
kingdom of heaven is the crucial message.
Now that sets up for understanding
the ascension. Jesus has to ascend. The kingdom is being postponed. What is
happening now during the session has to do with the preparation of what is
going to happen then.
Next time we will tie in Daniel 7
and Psalm 2. Psalm 2 also sets us up for Hebrews 1:5.
This helps us understand what the Lord is doing now and I hope this has a great impact for you.