[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 Feet-- Soaring Through the Scripture
from Genesis to Revelation. I want to welcome those
who are joining us online. Then just let me just
have a few words for those who are joining us that way. You'll notice that
when you get online now that there is a chat room
that you can get involved in. There are pastors, who are
there to meet you and greet you and answer questions
and pray for you. And so we want you to know
whether you are from this area or you are outside
of this area-- we have we have so many more
people that have joined us online than actually in
number in physical way ever came to our church. So if there is a
way we can minister to you in the community
you're in-- if you are making this a part of your spiritual
menu during the week and we can minister to you,
let us know how we can do that. I told you last time-- I think it was last time-- that
64 churches from the Maasai tribe in Africa are
going through The Bible from 30,000 Feet. So-- [APPLAUSE] --just in case any of
them would be joining us, we want to welcome everyone. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, how thankful we
are, as Paul the apostle said from a prison cell, the
word of God is not bound. There is a freedom to it. It takes wings. It penetrates, goes
into hospital rooms and cars and churches around
the world and people's devices. And we thank You, Lord, that
as truth is being heard, which is found in Your word
that lives are being set free, for you said, Lord Jesus,
that you will know the truth, and the truth will
make you free. Lord, we pray that we would
experience a little more freedom, as we gather around
the text of the book of Hebrews in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Now, it is true when you go
through the book of Hebrews, you immediately discover it
is different from other books in a number of ways. It has a completely
different form than anything we have read up to this
point in the Epistles of Paul or outside of the
Epistles of Paul. For example, in the
Book of Hebrews, there is no salutation. It doesn't say who it's from. It doesn't say who it's to. It doesn't say grace
and peace, et cetera. That is completely missing. There's no address at the
beginning or at the end. Those particulars are gone. The ending part of the book
is not a typical ending from the epistles
that we have read, the letters that we have read. An epistle is not a
wife of an apostle. Epistle is just a letter. So the letters that
we have read of Paul and the book of Hebrews-- there is a marked difference
between the style of these two things. Hebrews reads less like a
letter and more like a sermon, more like an essay, more
like a treatise or what was called in ancient times
a homily, a short sermon. And I say short. It's 13 chapters,
and yet, the author, whoever it is of this
book, will say at the end, you see how few
words I wrote to you, which I always laugh at, because
there's 13 chapters here. It's not a short
little letter at all. The theme of the book of Hebrews
is set forth very logically, pointedly. And he stays with that theme
for a long period of time. Now, who wrote the
book of Hebrews? You saw how that little video
ended, because no one knows who wrote the book of Hebrews. It is not stated. There is no name given. It doesn't say who it's from. It doesn't say who it's to. This is why it's so-- one of the reasons why it's so
different from Paul's letters. See, it's really easy
to say, well, it's Paul, because we have been
reading Paul's letters. And so we read another letter
and whether it says he wrote it or not, we just
assume, because it's in the lineup of
Pauline literature, that it must be
Paul that wrote it. But if Paul wrote it,
it's very non-typical, because Paul always
signed his letters. He would sign the
end of it, even if they were dictated by an-- to an amanuensis, the secretary. He would say who it's
from, who it's to, and then he would
sign the end of it. That does not appear here. So it doesn't seem to fit
something that Paul wrote. Here's something else. And I know I'm
probably just going to confuse you through
all this, because I'm not going to really answer the
question, who wrote it. But let's work our
way through the logic. Whenever the writer of Hebrews
quotes an Old Testament text, he always quotes from
the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called
the Septuagint version, which was considered a more
modern version, translated down in Alexandria, Egypt. And so every quotation
in the book of Hebrews comes from the Greek
translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, whereas
whenever Paul the Apostle quotes from the Old
Testament, he most often quotes from the Hebrew
text of the Old Testament. Also, the style of
the book of Hebrews is completely different
from the letters of Paul. Though Paul was a
very educated person-- he was a very
passionate person-- and though he was very
logical, as so is this book, the style of Hebrews is
a higher level of Greek. If you've ever studied the
Greek language, especially Greek biblical literature,
the easiest writings by far are the writings of
John the Apostle-- John, 2 John, 3
John, Gospel of John. Those are easy. That's why beginning
Greek students-- we always study those books
first, to get a handle on it. It's easy to parse. It's easy to translate. When you get into
the writings of Paul, they're a little
more difficult. He's giving to you lots of the usage
of Greek participles, where he hangs thoughts on a participle. When you get to the
book of Hebrews, it's a higher level still-- very, very polished,
very precise in its use of the Greek language. So who wrote the
book of Hebrews? Don't know-- whoever
wrote the book of Hebrews knew Timothy, because the last
chapter of the book of Hebrews mentions Timothy,
but mentions him not as my son or my
true son in the faith, but our brother Timothy. So there's a lot of
contenders for it. You heard in the
video a few of them. Some say it's Paul. Some say it's Barnabas. Some say it's Silas. Some say it was Luke. Some say it was Aquila. Some say it was Clement
of Rome, because whoever wrote this book, it's obvious
that he wrote from somewhere in Italy, because he says,
the Saints in Italy greet you, probably Rome. But if I had to pick--
if somebody forced me up against the wall and
said, OK, right now you have to pick one person, who
wrote the book of Hebrews my guess would be Apollos. And that is because of the
description of Apollos-- he fits all the
criterion that I just mentioned to you of knowing
Timothy and the fact that he quoted the
Septuagin version, which comes from Alexandria, Egypt. He himself came from
Alexandria, Egypt. In Acts, chapter
18, we're introduced to a Jew named Apollos. So I know one of them
said in the video that, well, Apollos was Greek. Well, he spoke Greek, but he
was Jewish, his background. So he was a Jew born at
Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures. This man had been instructed
in the way of the Lord. Being fervent in Spirit, he
spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord. That description, though
I can't be dogmatic, seems to fit the author
of this book in my view closer than all the others. There have been different times
throughout church history, where somebody leans on
this person to that person. If you care for Martin
Luther to weigh in on it, Martin Luther was probably
the first one who said, I believe it was Apollos
who wrote this book. So not that I'm
siding with Luther, but if I had to pick one,
I would probably pick him. Something else-- whoever it
was, it was someone to whom the gospel came not
firsthand, but secondhand-- that is, he didn't hear it
himself directly from the Lord. But somebody who heard
it directly from the Lord told it to him. That's told us in chapter 2,
but I cannot remember the-- I think it's around
verse 3, I think. Let's see. Yeah, here it is. How shall we escape if we
neglect so greater salvation, which at first began to
be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us
by those who heard him. So that indicates that whoever
this was didn't hear it firsthand, but secondhand--
very different from Paul the Apostle, who made us aware
that Paul, an apostle of God, not by man nor through men, but
by revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father
through the resurrection of the dead-- Galatians, chapter 1, verse 1. Paul made a big deal of the
fact that he heard it firsthand. So I would weigh in
and say it is not Paul the Apostle, though it
is easy and convenient to say that. You can say whatever you want. But I won't agree with you. Now, I want to get through this. So I'm going to attempt to
cover the book of Hebrews in totality with you
tonight in summary fashion. And I know I've barely gotten
started, because I'm still in an introduction. Who was it written to? Hebrews-- where do they live? We don't know--
could be Jerusalem. Most people think
it was Jerusalem, a letter written from
Rome to Jerusalem, the Hebrews in Jerusalem. We do know that the earliest
converts of Christianity were all Jewish in Jerusalem. On the day of Pentecost,
3,000 souls were saved. When there was the
healing of the lame man at the gate beautiful through
Peter and John in chapter 3, another 5,000 came to faith. So it was a burgeoning
massive group of Jewish believers
in some place. I'm guessing Jerusalem,
though it is not stated. It is written to Jewish
converts in the Messiah. They believe Jesus
is the Messiah, though some may have
been unbelievers, who were toying with
and investigating the claims of Christ,
but had not made a full commitment to him yet. We know it's written to Hebrews,
because the entire book is bathed in the motif of
sacrifice and the priesthood and the imagery that comes
to us from the Book of Exodus and the Book of Leviticus. In fact, the author assumes that
you have a working knowledge of the Book of Exodus and
the Book of Leviticus, because he draws from
that throughout the book. And by the way,
there is no mention of gentiles in this book. So it's safe to say,
though it doesn't-- the title says Hebrews. Nowhere else does it say that. We can assume it is written to
Jewish people, either converts or unbelievers, who
are investigating it. Here's the theme of the book. Jesus is all you need. Now, I'm going to flesh
that out a little bit. The theme of the
book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is the full
and final and best expression of God in history. There is a word that is
used in this book 13 times-- the word better. Jesus is better than this. Jesus is better than that. Jesus is better than
the other thing. And so that is the theme. And the sub-theme--
Jesus is all you need. Jesus is the full, final, and
complete expression of God. The sub-theme is that
because of Jesus, we have full and unrestricted
access to God. This is important. In Judaism, there was not full
and complete instant access to God. You had to go through courts. You had to go through gates. You had to go through priests. You had to go through moderators
of the law, like Moses, et cetera, et cetera. You had to go through
different stages. And only certain people
were allowed, especially into the presence of God. The high priest could
only go once a year under certain very
strict conditions. All that is gone now. And Jesus is all you
need, the full and final complete expression of God. And you have complete
and unrestricted access. Book is divided
into two sections-- chapters 1 through 10,
chapters 11 through 13-- 1 through 10,
doctrinal instruction; chapters 11 through 13,
practical exhortation. Now, Paul uses this
kind of format. So that could tend perhaps
for some people thinking it's very Pauline in its approach. But that's not an uncommon
approach to writing a letter or writing an essay. So we begin in chapter
1, verse 1 again. We're just going to
touch on a few verses. And I'm going to make
summaries of this section, because we're going
through the whole book. This is, after all, The
Bible from 30,000 Feet, although I've been at 3 feet
level for the last 10 minutes. I apologize for that. OK. The theme of the
next few chapters in this doctrinal instruction
is that Jesus is better. He is superior. He is a better
messenger, first of all. Chapter 1 and 2-- he's
a better messenger. Chapter 1 verse 1, God-- oh, by the way, how
about we start there? We're wondering, well, who
wrote the book of Hebrews? I suggest the first word
gives you the answer. God is the author of the book. Whomever it came
through is irrelevant. Typically, it says
Paul, an apostle. Here it says, God. So I like to think of it
as an inspired book of God, given through probably
Apollos, but maybe Barnabas or Paul or Luke or Clement. God, who at various times
and in various ways, spoke in times past to the
fathers by the prophets 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 worlds, who, being the brightness
of His glory, and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things
by the word of His power when he had himself
purged our sins, sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on High, having become so
much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. God spoke, the author
says, in different ways at different times through
different messengers. In the book of Genesis,
God spoke through angels. God spoke directly. But then God used an angel
to guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden. God used the Angel of the
Lord to speak to Abram, later on Abraham. In the Book of Exodus,
God used angels in the giving of the Law. God promised He would
send his angel with him. But also in the Book of Exodus,
God spoke through Moses. And then also in that section of
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, God spoke through the priests,
through the high priest. He had these two stones
called an Urim and a Thummim, which would discern
the voice of God in a positive or negative way. So God spoke through
that way-- angels, Moses, high priests with the
Urim and Thummim-- and then much later on prophets. The Old Testament has
17 different prophets. Some of them were
just straightforward. Some of them were in your face. Some of them were quite
colorful and weird. Isaiah walked naked and
barefoot for three years. That would get your attention-- guys streaking through
the streets of Judah. Jeremiah took a pot in
front of the priesthood and busted it on the ground. Ezekiel played war
with a clay tablet, besieging a model of Jerusalem. Some of these guys
were just quite odd to get people's attention,
but God spoke through them in a variety of ways. But ultimately, God
speaks through His Son. 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 world. Jesus is the full and
final expression of God. You might say after Jesus, God
put a period or an exclamation point. Verse 4-- having become so
much better than the angels-- we covered that. Verse 5-- for to which of
the angels did He ever say, you are my Son? Today I have begotten you. And again, I will
be to Him a Father. And He shall be to me a Son. And when He brings the
first born into the world, he says, let all the
angels of God worship Him. Angels were prominent in the Old
Testament, in the Old Covenant, in the Garden of
Eden, as I mentioned. Two angels guarded the way
so that Adam and Eve couldn't get back in and eat
of the tree of life and live forever in
their sinful condition. Angels were embroidered into
the veil in the tabernacle. Angels were affixed above
the Ark of the Covenant on the mercy seat. The motif of angels
were used even then. In the Book of Isaiah, where
he gets the vision of the Lord high and lifted up, he hears
angelic beings, seraphim, a classification of angels,
saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole Earth is
filled with His glory. But Jesus is better
than the angels, he writes to these Jewish
believers and seekers. That was important, because
there were communities in Israel like the
Essene community, who almost worshipped angels. In the Essene communities,
those Essectic people, who lived down by the Dead Sea,
they taught, they believed, and they promulgated the idea
that the archangel, Michael, had the same authority,
or even in some cases, superseded the authority
of the coming Messiah so that the Messiah was obscured
by the presence of angels. It's interesting when you
go into the Sistine Chapel, and you see that great
work of Michelangelo. It's pretty cool. I mean, it's pretty--
he was awesome. But on a theological
level, though God is there in the center and touching
mankind, He's obscured. There's so many other beings
and cherubs and angels around. It's just like the ceiling
is cluttered with angels. It's as if the main character
is obscured by lesser beings. So the writer of Hebrews
strips off those lesser beings and says, the
angels worship him. Jesus is a better
messenger than the angels. Verse 13-- but to
which of the angels did He ever say,
sit at my right hand until I make your
enemies your footstool? Are they that, as angels-- are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to those who will
inherit salvation? Therefore-- now, he
makes that application-- we must give the more
earnest he to the things we have heard,
lest we drift away. He's using a nautical
term of a ship in a harbor untethered
to the dock that drifts out, drifts out, and then
crashes, becomes shipwrecked. For-- now, watch this-- if
the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every
transgression and disobedience received a just reward-- now, he's referring
there to the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Deuteronomy 33
mentions that when God spoke and gave
the Law to Moses, it was accompanied by
10,000 angelic beings. So the idea of the law being
given through angels-- that's the idea. So if the word
spoken through angels proved steadfast and every
transgression and disobedience received a just
reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a
salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the
Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard? Do you get his logic? He's going from
lesser to greater. If disobedience to an inferior
covenant, like the Law, brought swift
retribution and judgment, how are we going to escape if
we push away the New Covenant? You see, the danger of
these Hebrew believers is, though they had a faith
in Christ, most of them, or they at least tasted it and
were starting to believe in it, the persecution against
them was pushing them back to the comfort of the
ritual of Judaism, the ritual of their religion. I meet so many people like that. They're raised in
a religious system. They do it, because
it's comfortable. They have a
born-again experience. But their family hassles them. How come you left our
church, the true church? Don't you know that you have
to go through these rituals and this religion? And that kind of hassle and
pressure inundates them, and they're tempted
to go back to it. Forget the hassle. So one of the key warnings
in the book of Hebrews is, don't go back to bondage
when you have been emancipated in Christ. How shall we escape,
verse 3, if we neglect so great a salvation? So we have a better messenger. And the next two chapters,
three and four, we have a better moderator. Verse 3, therefore,
holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider our apostle and high priest of our confession
Jesus Christ, who was faithful to Him, who
appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. Now, Moses was the moderator
of the Old Covenant, the covenant of the Law. God gave it to the
children of Israel through the hand of Moses. Moses is called the
great law giver. He was the moderator of it. Verse 3, for to this
one that is Jesus has been counted worthy
of more glory than Moses inasmuch as he who
built the house has more honor than the
house, for every house is built by someone. But He who built
all things is God. And Moses, indeed, was
faithful in all His house as a servant for a testimony
of those things, which would be spoken afterward. But Christ, as a Son over
His own house, whose house we are if we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the
firm hope to the end? Moses had a very unique
position before God. We're told in Exodus
33 that he would go into a special tent
called the tent of meeting. And God spoke to
Moses face-to-face, as a man would
speak to his friend. Moses moderated the Law. Moses taught the people the Law. Moses repeated the Law. That's what the Book
of Deuteronomy is. Moses, among the Jews, is
considered the great moderator, the great law giver. It's the law of Moses,
for goodness sake. And he is highly esteemed. Just to show you how, there
was a book put out not too long ago by a Jewish author,
Michael Shapiro, called the Jewish 100, the 100
most influential Jewish people of all time-- number 1 on the list-- Moses, not Jesus,
Moses on his list. Moses is number 1, because
he is the great law giver. Number 2 on his list
was Jesus, followed by Albert Einstein,
followed by Sigmund Freud, followed by Abraham. And I think number 6
was Saul of Tarsus. That's how Michael
Shapiro wrote it. But to point out that
that is the consensus of all Jewish people, the
greatest Jewish person of all time in their
estimation is Moses. So Moses, according to
the writer of Hebrews, was part of the household
of faith, the household of the children of Israel. The house is a
reference to humans, because whose house are you, he
says, if you keep following it. So Jesus built the house. Moses was part of the household. So Jesus is a better moderator. Now, after Moses came Joshua. Joshua brought the
people into the land. Go down to chapter 4, verse 8. You remember that volume
before we get to 4:8. In the wilderness,
an entire generation died, right, except
for how many people? Two-- Joshua and
Caleb-- one of them became the leader of the next
generation that survived. But that whole generation died. So they failed to enter
the Promised Land. They failed to enter the
land, apart from the enemies, the land of rest, you might say. Verse 8 of chapter 4-- for if
Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward
have spoken of another day. There remains, therefore, a
rest for the people of God, for he who has entered
His rest has himself also ceased from his works
as God did from His. Even those who entered
the Promised Land alive didn't rest for very long. They might have gone,
oh, we're in it. But now they have
to face Jericho. Then they have to face the
battle of Ai, which they lost. Then they have to
settle the north and the south and the middle. And that's battle after
battle after battle after battle after battle. And then eventually they
got kicked out of the land and taken to Babylon,
so not much rest. It was very, very temporary. And the idea is there's an
eternal rest that is promised. And that rest is
found in Christ. So we have a better messenger. We have a better moderator. Go down to verse
14 of chapter 4. We have a better mediator. Now, who was the mediators
of the Old Covenant? Priests, high priests--
they stood before the people to represent God. They stood before God
to represent the people. They mediated the Covenant. So we have a better
messenger, a better moderator. We have a better mediator. That's chapter 4, verse 14,
all the way through chapter 7. Seeing then, verse 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, for we do-- this is one of my favorite
passages anywhere-- for we do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in
all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come
boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. In the Old Covenant,
one needed a priest. You couldn't
directly come to God. Sin blocked a direct
approach to God. You either go to a
priest, bring an animal. He'd slaughter the animal. Blood would be sprinkled. The blood would be for the
atonement of your sins. And then the priest
would represent you before God in the holy place
and the holy of holies-- period. You couldn't just
say, hey, Mo, Aaron, could you just kind of
move over for a minute? I'd like to go into
the holy of holies today and hang out with God,
just enjoy intimacy with God. You'd be struck dead. First of all, they
wouldn't let you in. There was no direct approach. So the plain teaching
of the author of Hebrews is, we have a better
messenger, a better moderator. We have a better mediator. Jesus Christ, our
great high priest-- he was in all points
tempted like we are. That's the purpose
of the incarnation. God became flesh. So He knows what it's
like to be human. So when you cry out to God
and go, God, I'm in pain, if God never became a man, and
he said, oh, God, I'm in pain, God would have to scratch
his divine forehead and go, I don't-- I don't even know what pain is. I can't relate to
your condition. But because he became a human
and suffered, when you say, I'm in pain, God says, I
know what that feels like. I know what pain is all about. I've been touched with the
feeling of your infirmities. I can sympathize
with your weaknesses. He was in all points tempted
like we, yet without sin. That's why we come boldly. Now, in the Old Testament-- I want to keep going. I'm going to keep going,
because I could-- listen, I can get tempted
to get bogged down. In the Old Covenant,
the priest would offer a sacrifice for the people. But here's the problem. The priest himself was a sinner. He was imperfect. So he had to offer
sacrifices for himself, as well as the people. Chapter 5, verse 1, for
every high priest taken from among men is
appointed for men, and things pertaining
to God that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins, he can have compassion on
those, who are ignorant and going astray
since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this, he is
required, asked for the people, so for himself to offer
sacrifices for sins. So we have a better
mediator, because we have somebody, who is without
sin, it says back in chapter 4. So you follow where he's going. Here's the doctrinal
instruction-- better messenger, better
moderator, better mediator. Now, in chapter 5
and in chapter 6, there's exhortations
to maturity. There's application
of what he has said. I'm going to take you
all the way to chapter 7 now, where he flushes the
priesthood out a little bit. But he tweaks it. Watch this. Verse 1, chapter 7, for
this Melchizedek whom he mentions a few verses
before, King of Salem, priest of the most high God,
who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the
kings and blessed him-- that's Genesis 14. You know the story-- to whom also Abraham
gave a tenth part of all being translated
the king of righteousness and then also the king of
Salem, meaning king of peace, without father or mother,
without genealogy, having neither beginning
of days or end of life-- go down to verse 11. Therefore, if perfection
were through the Levitical priesthood, for
under it, the people receive the law,
what further need was there that another
priest should arise according to the order of Melchizedek
and not to be called according to the order of Aaron. For the priesthood being
changed of necessity, there is also a
change of the Law, for He of whom these
things are spoken belongs to another tribe from
which no man has officiated at the altar. What tribe did Jesus come from? Judah-- what tribe was
the priesthood from? Levi-- Levi. So you have two
different tribes. That's his point. For it is evident
that our Lord chose a rose from Judah, of
which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning
the priesthood. And it is yet far more
evident if in the likeness of Melchizedek there arises
another priest, who has not come according to the law
of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an
endless life, for he testifies, you are a priest
forever according to the order of Melchizedek. OK, what's going on here? Let me explain this. In Genesis 14, there was
an international crisis, the first international
crisis mentioned in scripture. A coalition of five kings fought
a coalition of four kings. The head of the
coalition of five was a guy by the name
of Chedorlaomer-- fun name. Don't name your son that-- Chedorlaomer. He was the king really
of Iran in modern terms. He, for 12 years, kept other
kings down by the Dead Sea area under his tribute. They had to pay money
to him every year. In the 13th year, they said,
enough of this taxation stuff. I don't want to pay
this guy anymore money. So they rebelled against him. So now there were four
kings who fought five kings. Chedorlaomer won the
fight, then attacked the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah, where Lot lived, took him captive, took
spoil of the city. And then Abraham gets
brought into the battle. He happens to have not
only a large staff, but he has his own army. And he chases them down
all the way up to Damascus, takes the spoil
back, frees Lot-- this is all in chapter 14
of the Book of Genesis. It's a weird story. And then after the
battle is all done, a different king,
a very unique king, who is not a part of the
battle, the King of Salem, comes to meet him. Salem is the early
name for Jerusalem. The king of Salem means peace. The king of peace
came to meet him. What's odd about this
king, Melchizedek, is his name and
his belief system. His name, Melchizedek,
means in Hebrew the king of righteousness. So he is the king of
righteousness, the king of peace, the king of Salem. And he's monotheistic. All the kings of the
area were polytheistic. He was the priest of
the most high God elyon. So he is a king and a priest,
or if you will, a high priest. And he comes to
meet with Abraham. And Abraham and he
have a conversation. Melchizedek blesses Abraham in
the name of his God of elyon. And it says, Abraham paid a
tithe, a tenth of the spoil that he took back and paid it
to the king of righteousness, the king of peace, this
monotheistic high priest-- he paid a tithe. Now, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, right-- those are the patriarch. Abraham had a son. Isaac-- Isaac had
a Jacob, right? Jacob had how many sons,
how many tribes of Israel? 12. 12-- OK, one of them
was Levi, right? So the point the
author is making is that Abraham, in whose
loins and whose body, would eventually come
the tribe of Levi since he paid a tenth to
Melchizedek-- whenever you pay a tenth in ancient times,
you are denoting superiority and honor. So he was honoring him and
saying, you are superior to me. I'm giving you a tenth. So the author of
Hebrews say, in a sense, Levi, who is still in
the loins of Abraham, tithed to Melchizedek,
saying, you are of a superior
order than even Levi. OK, so that's-- so you say, OK,
OK, OK, that's all confusing. We know God established
a priesthood, the priesthood of Levi. But when we get to Psalm 110-- and the author does quote that-- we get this messianic
portrayal, this prediction. Behold, you are
a priest forever, Psalm 110 says, after
the order of Melchizedek. And since Melchizedek was
seen as higher than Abraham and thus higher than
Levi, it's a psalm, a prediction that
the Messiah will be not of the order
of Levi, because he was from the tribe of Judah. But he'll be from the order
of Melchizedek, which is, according to
Abraham, a superior-- a superior priestly line. Do you follow? OK, good. You got it. You got it down. So we have a better mediator. He's drilling down on the
point that our mediator is much better. Not only that, but chapter
8, we have a better ministry, verse 1. Now, this is the main point of
the things that we are saying. We have such a
high priest, who is seated at the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a
minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord erected and not man, verse 6. But now, he has obtained a more
excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established
on better promises, for if the first Covenant--
that's the covenant of the law-- had been faultless,
then no place would have been
sought for a second, because finding fault
with them, he says, behold, the days
are coming, says the Lord, when I will
make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah, not according to the
Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt, because they did not
continue in my Covenant. And I disregarded them,
says the Lord-- for this is the Covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind
and write them on their hearts. I will be their God. They will be my people. None of them shall teach his
neighbor and none his brothers, saying, know the Lord,
for they shall all know me from the least of them
to the greatest, et cetera. He's quoting
Jeremiah, chapter 31. Here's the point. He says, now, here's
the main point. We have a better priesthood. We have a better mediator
and a better ministry. The Old Covenant wasn't enough. Judaism wasn't enough,
because in the Old Covenant, it anticipated the New Covenant. It predicted the New Covenant. In Jeremiah 31, it
says, day is coming when the Old Covenant's done,
and the New Covenant is coming. So it anticipated that. And then he quotes that section
of Jeremiah, chapter 31. Let me give you some
of the differences between the old and the new. Basically, the Old Covenant,
the Law, the Law of Moses, was all about trying to
control people's conduct. Don't do this. Do that. Do this that many times-- controlling people's conduct. That's why Paul
said it's temporary. It can't last. It's one thing to try to
control somebody's conduct. It's another thing to
change somebody's character. That's the difference. The old only tried to
control your conduct. The New Covenant under
Christ, because of Christ, changes your character. You get life change. You get change from
the inside out. Think of it this way
if you're a musician. Any musicians? OK, good. Good. So the Old Covenant-- you
were given sheet music. You've got cadence. You've got rhythm. But you better follow the
dots or the conductor. But in the New
Covenant, He gives you the ability to play by ear. You don't even need
the sheet music. The song is in your heart. And you just get on the piano
or on the guitar or whatever instrument, probably
not the tuba. And you just know it. You just do it. It's intuitive. You don't even have
to try that hard. It just comes naturally. You can play it by ear. You don't have to
follow the sheet music. You've got the song
of God in your heart. So we have a better
messenger in Christ, a better moderator in Christ,
a better mediator in Christ, and a better ministry in Christ. Something else is better. We have a better monument. Chapter 9-- then indeed,
even the first Covenant had ordinances of divine service
and the Earthly sanctuary. What was the Earthly sanctuary? The temple, or at first, the
tabernacle, the tabernacle, which then became the temple. In the Book of Exodus,
it was the tabernacle. 4 verse 2, a tabernacle was
prepared, the first part in which was the lampstand, the
table, the show bread, which is called the sanctuary-- that's the holy place-- and behind the
second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is
called the holiest of all, which had the golden censor,
the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides
with gold, in which were the golden pot that had
manna Aaron's rod that butted in the tables of the covenant-- that's the Ten Commandments. And above it were the cherubim,
those angels I told you about, cherubim of glory, overshadowing
the mercy seat of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Whew! Glad about that. OK, tabernacle was a structure. It was a monument. All it was was a monument. In the desert-- I'll tell you I've seen
in the desert of Sinai and in the desert of
Judea a tabernacles that have been erected. So you can go visit
them to this day and see exactly
what they were like. But when you look at it, it
does not look all that great. It's just this
cloth-fenced courtyard 75 feet wide by 150 feet deep. That courtyard is where
sacrifices were offered. There was an altar of brass
out in that courtyard. There was a laver for washing
those sacrifice, those parts in the hands of the priest. And then in the middle of that
courtyard, 75 by 150 feet, there was a tent
structure toward the west. And it was 15 feet wide
by 45 feet deep divided into two-- one room, 15 by 30. That was the holy place. In the holy place
when you walk in, if you were a priest,
on your left-hand side would be a golden lampstand
called the menorah. Right in front of you would
be a altar of incense, where you would light and burn. And on the right-hand side
was a table with bread on it, show bread, 12 loaves
representing the 12 tribes of Israel-- very emblematic. It was a monument. Beyond that was a veil. And only the high priest could
go in that one time a year. That's called the
holiest of all. That's where the Ark
of the Covenant was. And he sort of details that. Interesting thing
about the tabernacle-- you ready, just because
I want you to hear this? There are more chapters
in the Bible devoted to the subject of the tabernacle
than any other single subject. Now, that should cause interest
to a Bible student at least. I mean, think of it. God spends maybe two chapters
talking about creation. We wish He gave 50 chapters
on creation, 100 chapter. He gives two, not
even quite two. When it comes to the
tabernacle, there are 50 detailed chapters
of it, which makes us wonder why such detail. I'm glad you asked. [LAUGHTER] Verse 11, but Christ came as the
high priest of the good things to come with a greater
and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands-- that is, not of this creation. Verse 23, therefore,
it was necessary that the copies of the
things in the heavens should be purified with
these, but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these, for Christ has not entered the
holy places made with hands, which are-- here's
that word again-- copies of the true,
but into heaven itself not to appear in
the presence of God for us. The author of Hebrews
is saying that when you walked into
the tabernacle, you walked into a model of heaven-- OK, a poor model, but a model. Why is it a model of heaven? Why is it a model of
really of Christ in heaven? First of all, there's only
one way to get in, one door. Jesus said, I am the
way, the truth, the life. I am the door. To get into that door,
you had to approach it, because it was on
the east side, you had to approach it through
the tribe of Judah to get in. When you got into
the holy place, there was a single source of
light, the golden candlestick. Jesus said, I am the
light of this world. On the right-hand side,
table of show bread-- Jesus said, I am
the bread of life. You walk into a court room in
the desert approaching God, which is a copy of the true. Now, continuing on in
verse 25, because we're running out of time, and I
do want to finish the book. It says, not that he
should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the
most holy place every year with the blood of another. See, the thing about the
Old Testament sacrifices is they just never ended. Every day was a sacrifice. Every month, every year was
that day when He walked in. He just kept going. Verse 26, He then would
have had to suffer often since the foundation
of the world, but now once at
the end of the ages He has appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself. I grew up with a doctrine
called the Continual Sacrifice of the Mass. Anybody ever heard
of that doctrine? It's a Catholic doctrine. The idea is that
a mass is going on somewhere in the
world at all times, because there must needs
be a continual sacrifice. That's just Catholic dogma. I grew up on it. I had long discussions
with theologians about it. That follows the Old Testament
priesthood and defies the New Testament. The point of the
New Testament is that you don't have to do it
over and over and over and over again. You do it once. And you don't even do it. Jesus did it once. He offered the right sacrifice
at the right time one time. And it's over. It's finished, unlike
the Old Covenant-- unlike the Old Covenant. And as it is appointed for men
to die once, but after this, the judgment-- so
Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly
wait for Him, He will appear a second time
apart from sin for salvation. Tabernacle, temple--
just monuments-- we have a better monument. We have some-- more
than a monument. We have heaven. Jesus is in the
courts of heaven. He appears before the
Father in heaven for us, where he's going
to take us one day. We're not going to be living in
a tabernacle out in the desert. So we have a better monument. Chapter 10, we have
a better method. For the Law, having a shadow
of the good things to come, and not the very image
of those things, can never, with the same
sacrifices, which they offer continually,
year by year, make those, who
approach perfect. So this is-- what Jesus
did is better than all of the animal sacrifices, which
were temporary and continual. Go down to verse 11. Now, he's going to drill down on
this, and you'll understand it. Every priest standing,
ministering daily and offering a repeatedly
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins,
because if they could take away sins, you'd stop doing them. The fact that you have
to keep doing them shows they aren't really
working to take away sins. But this Man, after He had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever-- watch this-- sat down at
the right hand of God. Do you see verse 11? Every priest stands ministering. This Man sat down from that time
waiting until His enemies are made His footstool,
for by one offering, He has perfected forever
those who are being sanctified When Jesus died on the cross,
He said, it is finished. You know what the
word is in Greek? You are scholars. What is it? Tetelestai. Tetelestai-- look at you
guys, you Greek brainiacs. [LAUGHTER] You know that word, tetelestai. It's what priests would say
after examining an animal and finding that it had no spot
or blemish-- tetelestai if he was a Greek-speaking priest
or to a Greek merchant-- tetelestai, no blemish. Or an artist would
paint something. And if it was completed
and up to the par of the mind of the
artist, he might say, tetelestai, which is the
picture is completed. Certainly Jesus
completed the picture the Old Testament
started to draw. Now, it's all come
together in one. Also, a merchant, when
doing a transaction when the full price was paid,
would say tetelestai, or paid in full. Jesus paid by His
blood everything necessary to procure your
salvation and my salvation. It is tetelestai. It is paid in full. Now, every priest stood. They didn't sit. There was no chair
in the tabernacle. Priests didn't sit in the
holy place and go, whew, man, I've had a long day. No, he would be walking around. He'd be moving all the time. His work was never done. Jesus, when He went
to heaven and offered His blood to the
Father, so to speak, sat down at the right hand. Why? Because when you sit
down, you're done. There's no more work to be done. It's finished. That's the indication
of it, that he sat down. He didn't have to stay standing. Now, chapter 11 is
the second part-- 11, 12, and 13,
practical exhortation. Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,
for by it, the others obtained a good testimony. By faith, we understand
so on and so forth. I covered this in
depth a few weeks ago when we did this chapter. So I'm not going to
really drill down, except to say that
He's now giving the practical exhortation
that we have a better manner of our approach. It's not by the Law. It is by faith
through God's grace and that all the
examples of faith-- and there are like
18 different examples of faith in this chapter-- he's trying to show that
faith is better than law, better than works,
because faith came first. Before there was a law, there
was Abel, who believed God. There was Enoch,
who believed God. There was Abram,
who believed God. And it was a counter to
Him for righteousness. So the highest possible
approach to God is not by works, not
by law, but by faith. And so He gives
example after example after example after example. Then He sums it all up. Verse 32, what more
shall I say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon,
Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets,
who through faith subdue kingdoms and did all
these cool things that I am not going to read,
because we're out of time. I have so much to say. And I just haven't
the time to say it, but that is the bane
of my existence. [LAUGHTER] When you get to chapter
12, look how practical-- therefore, we also--
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses-- he's talking about
all the 18 people he just mentioned in chapter 11. They've run before us. They've told us it's possible
to live a life of faith. It's desirable to
live a life of faith. It might hurt temporarily
to live a life of faith on this Earth, but you
will be eternally rewarded. And they have, and they are. So that's the great
cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every
weight in the sin, which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us. Don't go back to religion. Don't go back to Judaism. Don't go back to the
temple sacrifices that you once relied on. Now, you're free in Christ. Run with endurance. Don't stop-- looking into Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God, for consider Him, who endured such hostility
from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and
discouraged in your souls, for you have not yet resisted to
bloodshed striving against sin. Jesus sweat gray drops
of blood in the garden. Did that happen
to you this week? No, it didn't. So He did it. He endured it. So let us keep doing it. Go down to verse 7, for
if you endure chastening, God deals with you as
sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? Take you to verse 11. Now, I know chastening seems
to be joyful for the present, but painful, nevertheless. Afterwards, it yields
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those,
who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the
hands, which hang down, the feeble knees. Make straight paths
for your feet. So what is lame may not be
dislocated, but rather be healed. OK, he's writing to
Jewish believers, who are feeling the brunt
of persecution, getting tempted to go back to the
ease of their old religion. So their families and friends
will think, OK, they're back where they should be. And he says, no, look, Jesus
endured by shedding blood. You haven't done that yet. And know this, that when bad
things happen to God's people, they are number 1, provisional--
that is, temporary. Number 2, they are purifying. They're for a purpose. God is going to work this
for your good in the future. So strengthen those
knees that hang down. Now, I'm taking you
now to chapter 13. He continues the
practical exhortation. Let brotherly love
continue, et cetera. There's lots of great
exhortations here. But I'll take it to
the end, verse 20. Now, may the God of peace, who
brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant--
notice the wording-- make you complete in
every good word to do, as well working in you what
is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom
being glory forever and ever. Amen. He is summing-- it's one of
the most beautiful benediction anywhere, even in scripture. He's summing up in
those two versus the entire book of Hebrews
in a practical level. All the salient truths are
there in that benediction-- make you complete in every
good work to do His will. And then there's a
few ending remarks, including that about
Timothy and people in Rome. Say hi to you. Bye, bye. That's the book. So Jesus is better than
anything the Old Covenant had to offer, better than
anything Judaism had to offer. One of my favorite stories
is about two soldiers, who were trying to
bury their friend during the one of the battles
in Europe in World War II. Their friend died. They wanted to give him
an honorable burial, not on the battlefield. They took his body,
found a local churchyard, wanted to bury him
inside the churchyard. The priest, who kept the
church and the churchyard, met them at the gate and said,
is your friend a Catholic? And they said, no,
he was a Protestant. Priest said,
regretfully, he can't be buried inside the fence,
because he's not a Catholic. Those are the rules. I'm sorry. I apologize. My condolences, but
you're going to have to bury your friend somewhere
out there in the sticks. They dug a grave. They buried their friend on
the other side of the fence, just not part of the
graveyard and spent the night, came back the next day
to pay one last visit and say a few remarks at
the grave of their friend. When they went
back to the grave, where they buried
their friend outside, they noticed the grave
was nowhere to be found. They looked on the
entire perimeter, did not see the grave, did
not see their little cross that they had put up
and the name on it. They looked and
looked and looked. Finally, they found the
priest, and they said, look, we did what you said. We buried him outside the fence. And we came to find where he is. And we can't find him. And the priest said,
well, you know, after our conversation
yesterday afternoon I was so touched by
your story and so plagued by guilt with
those rules and regulations that I got up last night
in the middle of the night and I moved the fence-- Oh! --to include the
grave of your friend. He's now buried
inside the churchyard. Jesus did what the
law could not do. He moved the fence. He said, you're included, man. Before, it's like,
you can't come unless you're a Hebrew
male or a Hebrew female or a priest or a high
priest-- all those courts, all those rule--
regulations, all of that. Jesus moved the fence, tore
down the veil, and said, you're all welcome. [APPLAUSE] Father, thank you for
the message of Hebrews. More than that, thank
you for Jesus Christ, who is a better messenger,
moderator, mediator with a better ministry. We have a better
method in faith. And we have the best monument,
which really isn't a monument, because it's not an
Earthly tabernacle. It's not a temple. It's not a church. It is heaven itself, which is
our home that we look forward to being in. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. Let's all stand. Sorry I took four
minutes and 30 seconds-- [LAUGHTER] --of your time. [MUSIC PLAYING] For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from The Bible from 30,000 Feet.
