Thoughts From Hebrews - Chapter 3

                                         Hebrews 3:3-6

 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house.

                 As we continue with the theme Jesus is Greater, we see what else Jesus is greater than in this passage. We have seen that Jesus is greater than the angels, the devil, the Old Testament, Moses... but now we see that Jesus is bigger than religion. Let me explain by looking at a passage in Genesis where God appears to Jacob in the famous "Jacob's Ladder" account.

 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

         What we see in this passage is a God coming down from Heaven to give man a promise of blessing, no strings attached. Unconditional love for a scoundrel. What did Jacob have to do? Believe it, receive it, and go back to sleep. What did he do instead? In math we called it an "if - then" equation. He said that if God would watch over him, bless him, give him a good future, then Jacob would worship Him and tithe. And not only that, he built an altar to honor the place where it all happened and named it Bethel which means The house of God. This is religion - doing things for God so that He will bless you and honoring the place (the church) more than God. When I ask people "Are you a Christian?" at least half the time they will tell me, "I go to such and such church". Unfortunately you can see what will inevitably happen - when God doesn't come through on His perceived part of the bargain, then the deal is off. It is a man centered deal. That's religion. The writer of Hebrews warns the hearers that they are in danger of this. They are worshipping a place and the founder and leader of the place rather than the one who is in and over the place and founder. The conclusion of the Jacob story is seen in Genesis  35.

 Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

         When he wrestled with God face to face and realized that God could have dissintegrated him if He had wanted to yet let him live, He came to grips with the Holiness of God and that this life wasn't about him but about God. God didn't exist for Jacob but Jacob existed for God. This brought about getting rid of all other gods and worshipping and following one God. This meant going where He tells you to go. Notice he renamed the place. It was no longer "The house of God" but el Bethel - "The God of the house of God"

       The writer of Hebrews says to stop their religious worshipping of the law, the temple, the leaders but worship Jesus who is greater than all that stuff. Are we in danger of doing what the Hebrews were doing?

Thoughts on Hebrews - Chapter 2

                                                       Hebrews 2:1-3

 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?

                  I remember growing up in Church and I would often ask my Dad after the service, "What did you think of the message?" I had multiple reasons for asking him. Sometimes it was a pre-emptive strike.  In other words, ask him before he asked me because my mind had wandered. Sometimes it was because I didn't get anything out of it I wanted some validation that yes it was wanting. Most of all I valued his opinion and maybe I could have him summarize some truths that I may have missed (while I was looking at girls). I can remember him saying more than once, "It was a good salvation message, and I hope some unsaved people were there" which of course rarely happens at Sunday PM services or midweek prayer meetings. His underlying point was, "I'm saved already, I don't need to hear how to be saved, let's have some meat." Now I, too, have echoed this sentiment and I must say, I'm starting to rethink it. In fact the writer of Hebrews is warning us don't ignore this salvation or you will start to drift away.

               Not only does the writer of Hebrews emphasize to fellow believers not to ignore the salvation message but this is how Paul formulated his epistles. Ephesians 1-3, Collosians 1-2, Romans 1-11 all describe the gospel and then the remaining chapters then tell us in light of the gospel, here is how you should live.

                How does recounting the gospel keep us from drifting away? As we are tempted to fall back into sin we are reminded that Jesus horrendously suffered and died for that sin. Why would we even entertain it. As I'm tempted to worry about tomorrow I can tell myself, "At least I'm not being crucified." As i have worries about health, sickness, death, I remind myself that Jesus rose from the dead to defeat death and prepare a new sickness free body. As i think, why hasn't God done anything for me lately, I'm reminded that He gave His son for me, what else do I want? When I'm tempted to get revenge or hate people I'm reminded that Jesus said "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."  When we are tempted to think, "Is there another way?", we were reminded that Jesus asked the same thing and the answer was "no."

                 So never get tired of hearing how to be saved. In fact, think of creative ways to share it and memorize verses that explain it from both the Old Testament and the New. It will keep you from drifting.

Thoughts From Hebrews - Chapter 1

             Hebrews 1:1-3

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven

          What does it mean to you that Jesus sat down? I think of my wife cooking Thanksgiving dinner and after hours of cooking - she sits down. (probably not a good illustration because she would tell me that her work is nowhere near done) When I finish a surgery, sometimes after hours of standing I go sit down. When the pastor is done with his message he sits down. To me, the implication is that Christ accomplished what He set out to do. We think of Jesus fulfilling 3 offices - prophet, priest, and King, and I think these 3 verses reveal his "sitting down" in these 3 offices.

         First as a prophet. What does a prophet do? He gives the Word of God to the people. The author of Hebrews says in verse 2 that Jesus came as the final word of God. The Old Covenant was given and completed and compiled, now Jesus came to give the New Covenant. Old wineskins could not contain Him. When He preached He would say, "You've heard it said...but I say." "Whoever doesn't listen to these words of mine is like a foolish man..." How arrogant to say your words supercede the divinely inspired words of the Old Testament unless you are God, which by the way He was (and is). He even said that the Old Testament was talking about Him in John 5. Jesus was even referred to as the Word of God in John 1 and 1 John 1. He also said to hear Him was to hear God in John 12:50. The writings we see in the New Testament are His words which were carried to the churches by eyewitnesses who heard these teachings, recorded them without error (God saw to that) and their veracity was confirmed by signs, wonders, miracles performed by those recording those words.  Therefore Jesus completed the Bible and sat down.

        Secondly as a priest. What did a priest do? If a prophet took God to the people, a priest took the people to God. Thats why the daily job of the priest was to offer sacrifices so that the people's sins would be atoned so they could be to a very limited sense in the presence of God. That being said, they could only enter so far into the temple, they couldn't go near the mountain, and they had to do sacrifices over and over on a daily basis so I tend to think of it rather than enabling them to be in the presence of God it allowed them to be in the neighberhood without being incinerated. But then comes Jesus who offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice once and for all on the cross and His last words were "It is finished". Now the veil is torn, our sins are washed away and we can boldly enter His presence. He sat down!

        Lastly as a King. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, the place of might - the place of authority - the place of a Prince. In Joshua 10:23-25 we see the symbolism of the enemies being placed under Jesus' feet.

    So they brought the five kings out of the cave—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon. 24 When they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks.25 Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.”

       All enemies have been placed under Jesus' feet. He is standing on the neck of sin, the devil, sickness, pain, suffering, evil, dictators, drugs and finally death and He is just waiting to plunge the sword through but He knows when He does, time is up for unbelievers and He waits because He isn't willing that any should perish. He sat down as king.

                And this Jesus calls me His brother! What grace! No wonder I worship and adore Him!