Hebrews Lesson 41 February 2, 2006
NKJ
1 John 5:11
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is
in His Son.
Hebrews 4
We
are going to back up a little bit to the last paragraph in Hebrews 4.
NKJ Hebrews
4:14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed
through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
We are going to focus on that a little
bit because this sets the theme for the next section in Hebrews. In fact it
sets the theme for the two major sections in Hebrews - the superiority of the
priesthood of Jesus Christ over against the temporary Aaronic priesthood which
is based on the Mosaic covenant.
Last
time I set this structure up on the screen so that you would have a general
understanding of the flow of thought in Hebrews.
Section
One 1:2-2:4
Didactic
Exposition: 1:1-14
Practical
Exhortation and Warning: 2:1-4
Section
Two 2:5-4:13
Didactic
Exposition 2:5-3:6
Practical
Exhortation and Warning 3:7-4:13
Section
Three: 4:14-6:20
Didactic
Exposition 4:14-5:10
Practical
Exhortation 5:11-6:20
Warning
6:4-8
As
I stated in the opening introduction some 40 hours ago, Hebrews was written;
but I believe it was originally based on a message or teaching that was given. It
is an illustration of what an oral message or teaching was like. It is divided
based on these warnings sections that are scattered through the epistle. There
are five warning sections. Each one comes at the end of a teaching section. So
you have a didactic exposition followed by a practical exhortation that may be
a warning in and of itself or it may include a warning.
So
the first section extends from 1:1 down to 2:4 with 1:1-4 as the opening
prologue. Then you have a second section that we just finished 2:5-4:13. Then
the third section begins with 4:14 picking up the theme of Jesus Christ’s
current high priestly ministry which was introduced back in 2:17. This is the
major issue that underlies everything that is said in the book of Hebrews in relationship
to the believer. Back in the opening introduction last spring I stated that the
theme of the epistle is the implication of the Savior’s session on the current
sanctification of the saints and their future service in the kingdom. The
writer is building out the implications from the current session of Jesus
Christ at the right hand of the Father. It is (although He is eternally priest,
prophet and king) His priestly ministry that gets activated full force at the
ascension when He ascends to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the
Father.
It
is only in the book of Hebrews that the high priestly ministry of Christ is developed
in the New Testament. Paul doesn’t say anything about it in the Pauline
epistles. Its implications are flushed out in the book Hebrews. The
implications are that we have a Savior who is now seated at the right hand of
God the Father who is our High Priest. As such because He has already gone
through the same process of sanctification (spiritual growth) that we go through.
He is the originator, the pioneer and the forerunner of our spiritual life so
that He is able therefore to come to our aid. There are powerful implications
of that for the believer. There serious warnings for us if we fail to persevere
in obedience and advance to spiritual maturity. That impacts our future service
as priests and kings in the Millennial Kingdom.
So
in the previous section from 2:5 down through the end of that didactic section
in 3:6, the writer sets the stage for our understanding of the high priesthood
of Jesus Christ. So there are 7 points that I have on the importance of the
high priesthood of Jesus Christ.
``` NKJ
Hebrews 2:10 For
it was fitting for Him, for whom are all
things and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings.
The Second Person of the trinity
had to become true humanity. Second, as true humanity He has to set the pattern
in terms of spiritual growth and the spiritual life.
NKJ Genesis
3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between
your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His
heel."
God spells out the judicial
consequences on mankind and on the universe for the failure of Adam, for his
fall. In that section he addresses the serpent. “You will crush the woman’s
seed.” This is the first indication of the fact that there would be an attack against
the seed of the woman. But, this attack would not be fatal. The seed of the
woman would in turn crush the head of the serpent. So Satan is defeated at the
cross. So we face a defeated enemy, but He still controls the territory. That
is why he is referred to as the god of this age, the prince and power of the
air. He is still going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. So
Jesus had to be true humanity that through His substitutionary atonement on the
cross He would defeat the devil.
NKJ Hebrews
2:14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and
blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might
destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
He had to be true humanity.
“That” indicates a purpose
clause.
Not only did He have to be true
humanity so that He could defeat the devil on the cross, but as a result of
that He would release those who are in bondage. This word translated release is
the Greek word apallasso which means
to set free from slavery or to release from a state of being controlled. It is
through His death that not only Satan is defeated; but we are released, freed
from something. We are released - those who through fear of death are subject
to bondage. So there is a release from fear. Most of us would think if we
reflect back on that time when we were unbelievers that the fear of death was
not necessarily something that was foremost in our thinking. And so we look at
something like this and what the Word of God tells us despite our experience is
that at the core of our thinking, at the core of our emotional state is that we
are driven by fear. We will develop that in just a minute. We are delivered
from and released from that fear of death. That is part of the package that
goes with being a fallen human being. We will pick that thread up in just a
minute.
NKJ Matthew 4:4 But He
answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "
So He doesn’t function out of
His deity to solve the problems that He is facing in His humanity. He only
operates from His deity when He is demonstrating His deity – that He is
who He claims to be. He is born a man. He has to be true humanity. He is not just deity that comes upon a
human being. (That was one of the Gnostic views - that you had this Jesus who
was born a man and then there is this divine spirit that manifests itself
through Him starting with the baptism with John the Baptist. Then just before
the cross this divine spirit leaves and the man Jesus is crucified and dies. That
was one of the Gnostic views. Another Gnostic view was that this was just an
appearance of God, an apparition. He didn’t truly become flesh because if you
were truly flesh that would corrupt deity. In Gnosticism you have this dualism
between matter and spirit. The spirit is good. Matter is inherently evil. So
therefore God could never become true humanity. That was at the core of much
Gnostic teaching that became popular later on in the 2nd and 3rd
century.) The emphasis here is on the true humanity of Jesus. He became like
us. He is already deity and becomes a man, goes through this process, goes to
the cross where we are freed from sin. He pays the penalty for sin free from
the fear of death. Satan is defeated. Then Jesus goes to the next stage where
He becomes our merciful and faithful high priest. That becomes the foundation
for what the writer of Hebrews is going to develop for the spiritual life in
the next four or five chapters.
Then we come to the beginning of
our section where Jesus Christ is the high priest. He sympathizes with us in
our weaknesses.
NKJ Hebrews 4:16 Let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need.
So there is this flow of thought
that we have because that Jesus Christ is our High Priest because He has gone
through the same kinds of testing that we have gone through because He has
learned obedience through the things that He has suffered.
NKJ Hebrews 2:18 For
in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are
tempted.
Because He is able to aid us we
can find mercy and grace and aid from our Savior who is standing as our
representative next to the Father to handle the attacks and the assaults and
the accusations of Satan. So we see this connection between His high
priesthood, the mercy seat, His work of propitiation, and current ministry of
strengthening us and aiding us in times of testing so that the reality of
Christ’s high priesthood is one that is vital to our spiritual life and our
focus. This isn’t some sort of abstract doctrine that Jesus Christ is now prophet,
priest and king. Amen. There is a significance to this that often people miss. It
is not that He intercedes for us. This is something that is designed to give
moment-by-moment strength, aid, comfort, and power to the believer as we go
through difficult times. It is supposed to be a reality that dominates our
thinking. Right now no matter what you are going through whatever difficulties
there may be, whatever the pressures you face in life, Jesus Christ has already
been there and done that. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father to
intercede for you, to pray for you and is always ready to give aid and strength
to you no matter what you are going through. So this is an intensely practical
doctrine.
NKJ Hebrews
3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,
That is a command there from katanoeo - to carefully contemplate,
study, reflect upon, and meditate upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. So
we are commanded to think about Him, to focus on Him, to study about Him. These
are the crucial doctrines that under gird our whole belief system so that Jesus
is referred to as the Apostle and High Priest of our belief system. That is our
confession.
The word there for confession is
the same word that we find in I John 1:9, homogeo.
It not only means confession in the sense of admission of guilt but it also
means confession in the sense of profession of belief or a statement of
doctrine. It has the idea of the admission or acceptance of the full deity and
humanity of Jesus Christ. This idea of a confession is picked up again in the
beginning of our next section in 4:14.
NKJ Hebrews 4:14 Seeing
then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
So
in 3:1 we are commanded to contemplate, meditate, study upon who Jesus Christ
is because He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Then in 4:14 we
are to hold fast to this confession - the statement related to the person and
work of who Jesus Christ is. Now what under girds all of this is a fascinating illustration
for the believer. We are pictured as soldiers, as warriors in spiritual warfare
from Ephesians 6:10f who are engaged in a conflict in enemy territory. As part
of that we are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. That brings in the
whole doctrine of ambassadorship. But we are moving day in and day out
moment-by-moment through enemy territory. Even though Satan is defeated at the
cross, he is still alive and active. He is still prowling about like a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. Moment-by-moment we are operating in territory
that is under the control of an enemy that is more powerful than we are and who
is invisible. We can’t see him. We don’t understand what he is actually doing
– how he is influencing people and history and the events of our day. The
only thing we can do is to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Since Satan has
already been defeated, he is now engaged in what we would call a guerilla campaign,
a warfare of terrorism. He seeks to terrorize believers so that rather than
focusing on Jesus Christ and His power and His sustaining grace, we focus on
the problems of life and the details of life. We get distracted so that we are
more concerned with what is going on around us than we are with God’s provision
for us in the midst of adversities in life. So Satan is engaged in a campaign
of terrorism against believers. The core of this concept of terrorism is to induce
fear and anxiety into the individual so that we are fearful of what might
happen. This brings us to sort of a sidebar this evening on the doctrine of
fear. So let’s take a look at what the Bible teaches about fear.
Doctrine of Fear
NKJ Genesis
3:10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I
was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
There is a lot going on there. The
very presence of God exposes to Adam his guilt, his failure and his
vulnerability. He is totally exposed out there because prior to the fall, he is
enveloped in God’s protection. The enemy can’t really get to him. But, once he disobeys God there is an
automatic shift that takes place in reality. He is instantly cowering. He is
instantly afraid. He is instantly timid. He instantly realizes that he is
exposed and vulnerable. He is naked. They try to solve this problem on their
own, but it is a pseudo solution that can’t work. It is characterized by fear
so that the orientation of the fallen human soul is fear. We cover it up. We
try to hide it. We try to disguise it. We try to anesthetize it. But at the
very core of the rebellious creature’s soul is fear. Now he is exposed. He is
out there as it were as a soldier who has been completely left by all of his
support, all of his logistical aid. He is out there without armor, without fire
power. He is exposed to all of the assaults of the enemy. The orientation of
the human soul is towards fear. It is also oriented toward fear because now there
is going to be judgment. He knows that he has violated the righteous standard
of God and God is going to judge and condemn man for his disobedience and his
lack of righteousness. At the very core of the fallen soul is this orientation
toward fear. People try to cover this up in all kinds of ways. They go through
life and seek to anesthetize it with success, drugs, alcohol, the pursuit of pleasure,
or whatever it may be. Somehow in the details of life there are elements of
creation that they focus on in order to try to numb this sense of fear and anxiety
and worry and dread. Every now and then some psychiatrist comes up with a term
that describes it. The Germans called it angst. That is at the core of the
human soul. It isn’t focused on anything necessarily, but there is this
awareness that man is this limited finite creature that just out there. So man
tries to cover it up with every kind of pseudo solution possible. That’s what
Adam did when he created clothing from fig leaves.
NKJ Exodus
14:13 And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand
still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you
today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more
forever.
Exodus 14:13a gives a
foundational principle. This is when Moses talks to the people. Their backs are
against the Red Sea and the chariots of pharaoh are pressing from behind. It
looks like they are about to be annihilated.
That is the foundational
principle. “The battle is the Lord’s.” David said this as he was going against
Goliath. Relax. Don’t trust in
your own efforts, your own power, or your own ability. Trust in the deliverance
of God.
Joshua articulates the same
principle in Joshua 10 in the context of the conquest of the land.
NKJ Joshua 10:25 Then Joshua
said to them, "Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; be strong and of good
courage, for thus the LORD will do to all your enemies against whom you
fight."
The book of Joshua (the
historical events of Joshua) is a picture of the spiritual warfare, the
spiritual conflict that every believer is engaged in. We face numerous enemies.
We face enemies related to the sin nature. We face enemies related to Satan and
the demons. We face enemies related to the world system and cosmic thinking. This
applies to all of those enemies. The Lord will give us victory. We should not
be fearful or dismayed. We should be strong because our confidence is not in
our own power. It’s not in our mental ability or our IQ. It is in the power
of God.
NKJ Psalm
27:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom
shall I be afraid?
This is a promise that is a
favorite for many people.
When our confidence is in the
Lord He is our strength. He is our power. He is the one who strengthens us who
sustains us and aids us so that we can relax and not be fearful. We look at the
things that happen in the world today and we see the threat of Iran becoming a
nuclear power. There are threats to wipe out Israel. We look at a lot of
economic news that we hear and we realize the instability of an economic system
that is built on faith. It’s just paper money. And we look at the indebtedness
that the nation is in and all of the other things that threaten life on a
day-to-day basis. But we can relax because we know that God is in control. God
is working out His plan through history. If God is in control then who should
we fear? Why should we fear? Why should we worry? God is the one who is going
to comfort us and sustain us and strengthen us.
David speaks.
NKJ Psalm
27:3 Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not
fear; Though war should rise against me, In this I will be confident.
God
is his strength.
NKJ Psalm 34:4 I sought the
LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
Seek the Lord in prayer. Seek
the Lord through Bible study. Read the Scripture for yourself. Read through the
psalms. When there are times that you are overcome with worry, fear, or
anxiety; it is a great comfort to go to the psalms because David many times
goes through times, especially during that period when Saul was chasing him and
seeking to kill him. David is surrounded by enemies. He is threatened. He
expresses those fears to the Lord and then he focuses on the character of God
which brings him around to a position where he is relaxed, confident, and his
emotions are stabilized.
So he claims….
NKJ Psalm
46:1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song
for Alamoth. God is our refuge and
strength, A very present help in trouble.
No matter what the situation may
be, God is always there to aid us and sustain us. We have Jesus Christ who is
our high priest who has gone through the same kinds of tests and trials and
adversities. He is there to sustain us.
NKJ Psalm 46:2 Therefore we
will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be
carried into the midst of the sea;
Notice the flow here. He states
a principle in verse 1. This is what happens when you are going through the process
of the faith rest drill. You focus your mind on a promise, a fragment of
Scripture, a principle and you wrap you thinking around that. Here the
principle is given in verse 1.
What doctrine does that refer
to? God is omnipresent. So He is always present to us. Therefore we don’t go
through any trial, any test or any difficulty where God is not there with
us.
Verse 2 is a doctrinal
conclusion. Therefore I won’t be afraid. We think about who God is. We think
about His promises to us. That brings us to a doctrinal conclusion. Of course
30 seconds later you are starting to worry about it again. You are fearful so
you have to go through the process. Sometimes you go through that cycle 5 or 6
times every 5 or 6 minutes until finally you begin to stabilize and focus and
it becomes a reality. That takes time. That is the process of spiritual growth
and how we move forward. It takes time. It doesn’t happen in a day.
Isaiah 41:10 is a verse that is
familiar to all of us.
NKJ Isaiah
41:10 Fear not, for I am with
you; Be not dismayed, for I am your
God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My
righteous right hand.'
Philippians
4:6-7 are two important verses to memorize.
NKJ Philippians 4:6 Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
NKJ Philippians
4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
This is a direct command. Don’t
worry. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be fearful.
Thanksgiving related to what? To
whatever you are fearful of or anxious of or whatever it is you are in dread
of. Be thankful for those circumstances, that situation. Go to the Lord in
prayer.
Protect from what? Fear, anxiety
and dread. So you focus on God, not the problem.
That brings us to 1 Peter 5:7.
NKJ 1
Peter 5:7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
The idea is that we throw our
anxieties, our worries, and our cares upon Him. Why? Because He cares for you.
There is a rationale there. Because you are a believer, Jesus Christ loves you.
He has provided everything for you because He cares for you. In turn we are to
throw all of our cares upon Him and to let Him handle it. Then 5 seconds later
we have to throw them back again.
NKJ Psalm
56:3 Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.
Psalm 56 is a tremendous psalm
to read through when you are going through times of fear or difficulty –
when you feel overwhelmed. One of the verses talks about how He collects our
tears in a bottle. This builds on the ancient Near East practice that at a
funeral they had a special bottle, a little vial, that they would collect their
tears in, their tears of mourning and then they would preserve those. What that
imagery there is that God is aware of every tear that we shed and He pays
attention to it. It is a tremendous indication of how God is always there no
matter what we go through.
NKJ Psalm
56:4 In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my
trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?
It is the Word of God that gives
us that comfort.
NKJ Romans
8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
One
section of Scripture that I would encourage you to read when you have problems
with worry or fear is in Matthew 6:25 down through the end of the chapter. It’s
a great passage to be reminded of. Jesus is speaking to the disciples in the
context of the Sermon on the Mount.
NKJ
Matthew 6:25
" Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life
more than food and the body more than clothing?
In
other words, the basic logistics of life – food, shelter, clothing- don’t
worry about those things.
NKJ
Matthew 6:26
"Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather
into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than
they?
NKJ Matthew
6:27 "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his
stature?
You
see, that’s the basic point. We worry and we fear and it doesn’t do anything
productive and it doesn’t add a thing. It doesn’t solve anything. All it does
is waste a lot of time and turn our insides into knots.
NKJ Matthew
6:28 "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
NKJ Matthew
6:29 "and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these.
NKJ
Matthew 6:30
"Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He
not much more clothe you, O you
of little faith?
God
is going to sustain the believer. Maybe it’s not the way you think you ought to
be sustained, but God is going to take care of you and provide for you that
which you need to accomplish His plan for your life.
NKJ
Matthew 6:31
"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we
drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
NKJ
Matthew 6:32
"For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father
knows that you need all these things.
He
is talking about the way the pagans operated who don’t have divine
viewpoint.
That
is their priority - the food they eat, what they drink, their clothing and the
material aspects of life. That is their focus.
NKJ Matthew
6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
That’s the priority. When
he says to “Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness”, you see that we get
that righteousness at salvation. It’s not something that we are doing
subsequent to salvation. Once we are saved and we possess the righteousness of
Christ, then God is going to supply the logistical grace that we need. That
comes with the possession of Christ’s righteousness because we are adopted into
the royal family of God. It’s part of that whole package that God is going to
sustain us.
NKJ
Matthew 6:34
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its
own things. Sufficient for the day is its
own trouble.
Live
one day at a time. Focus on the provision of God. What happens when we get into
fear is that we get into a deteriorating cycle where fear controls and leads to
other sins. It has a debilitating effect on us if we allow it to continue. These
are some principles that are familiar to most of you. We will run through them
again for a reminder.
This is the principle that we
find in 2 Corinthians 12:9.
NKJ
2 Corinthians
12:9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will
rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
When
we recognize our inability is to recognize His ability.
Peter
concludes.
NKJ
1 Peter 5:6
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you
in due time,
NKJ
1 Peter 5:7
casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
It
is a matter of authority orientation. That is the structure of 1 Peter 5. When
we orient ourselves to the authority of God; then the fear, anxiety and worry
go away. We humble ourselves. We do this by casting our cares on Him because He
cares for us. So Jesus Christ is our High Priest. Jesus Christ is called in
Hebrews 2:17 a faithful and merciful High Priest. This is expanded in Hebrews
4:14 that He is a Great High Priest. As such He is the one who aids us,
strengthens us, and comforts us in every situation and circumstance in life. So
the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ is not something that is abstract. It
has to do with giving us strength and encouragement on a day-to-day basis no
matter what we face.
Let’s close in prayer.