Hebrews

Hello and welcome back to the Pastor Talk podcast.
We are thrilled to have you joining us once again.
We look forward to our time together with you today as we turn our attention to the book of Hebrews.
It’s going to be a great conversation as we sort of look into another way of looking at how Jesus
fulfills all of the promises,
all of God’s work with the people of Israel and with all of the
distinctives of that community,
we get to see how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise.
And so, as we turn our attention here,
we hope that you find something in it that’s helpful as
you do this reading and that we all find Jesus raised up in our own discipleship.
Today, we get to focus on the book of Hebrews,
an interesting book in the New Testament,
a book that has raised lots of questions about authorship and date at one time attributed to
Paul, though most people no longer believe that.
Not a letter in the technical sense,
especially in the early part,
it ends like a letter,
but most of this book reads like a
sermon or a presentation.
I think in some ways,
lots of connections to the book of Matthew,
not in the text itself,
but in what the author is saying,
probably in who the author is writing to.
The book of Hebrews seems very much like a Jewish Christian author writing to Jewish Christians.
And the whole theme of this sermon in many different forms is that Jesus surpasses
everything that has come before,
that Jesus is supreme,
superlative.
Whatever word you’d want
to use there, the author of Hebrews is going to time and time again find ways to make the comparison
to what has been and point out why Jesus is better.
And you mentioned, Clint, I think it’s helpful to point out the genre difference here because the letters that you’ve been used to
reading that are attributed to Paul very much have specific communities in mind and they’re often
workshopping problems in different ways and in different kinds of conversations.
But this is far
better to be thought of as a sermon than a letter.
And if you come to this looking for
workshopping in the same way that you’ve seen previous,
I think you’re going to miss some of
the richness of this.
So as you come to this,
be thinking more of a put together,
very kind of streamlined and thought through presentation.
And I think you’re going to see in that a really
beautiful sort of presentation and image of what we as Christians believe the significance of Jesus
is.
And exactly like you’re saying,
Clint, the theme that this entire book hinges on is the idea
of Jesus being better, most the highest.
Things like the Old Testament understanding of what the
high priest was, we find in Hebrews Jesus to be even more than.
Or early in the book here,
you have this talk of angels,
something that we attribute to spiritual heavenly beings,
beings that are higher than earthly beings.
And the author just kicks off right from the start with Jesus is above,
is better,
is raised to a higher place than even the angels.
Yeah, Michael, I think there’s some really good stuff in this book,
probably a shame that it’s
at the back of the New Testament.
And most Christians I think are not especially familiar
with Hebrews.
I don’t think it has gotten the usage that the letters of Paul have gotten.
Would it be fair to say that this may be the longest letter with a single theme?
I mean, we really don’t take a lot of trails in the book of Hebrews.
It will jump illustrations and metaphors,
but really stays very true to this idea that Jesus is connected to the Old Covenant in a
variety of ways, but Jesus fulfills and surpasses the Old Covenant in every single instance.
Yeah, absolutely.
You’re going to see the author using different examples,
but all of these
examples on some level are coming back to that core theme.
And I think that you’re right to say,
Clint, that we as Christians do often find ourselves in the books of Paul looking at things
like grace and justification.
And we maybe have not as often turned to the book of Hebrews to see
how Jesus is not only the fulfillment of all of these old promises,
but we also see in the book
of Hebrews, I think, a very clear theology of atonement of what Jesus did that changes everything.
I mean, without this book, we would lose some of our understanding of how Jesus did
for us what we couldn’t have done for ourselves.
And it’s framed in some Old Testament language,
but without this book,
I’m not sure that we would have as clear of an understanding of it as we do.
No, I think you’re right,
Michael.
And I think especially in those sections of the sacrifice
and the high priest and the need for those to be repeated as opposed to Jesus’ sacrifice that never needs repeated,
I think it absolutely fleshes out the idea that Christ’s sacrifice is different
in character and in quality and in result than those sacrifices known to the Old Testament or
to the Jews of their history.
One of the features you’re going to notice right away when you get
into this book is all of the quotations.
There’s just a lot of citation happening from Old Testament sources.
And it’s important because like you mentioned with Matthew,
Clint, that’s also a feature of Matthew’s gospel.
You see all of these references back to what was said.
And what the author of Hebrews does is to point to these realities that would have been shared by any Jew,
understandings of faith and God and what that means.
And what we see is that those things are not
in any way invalidated.
In other words, they’re not made less.
The author’s goal isn’t to make
Judaism look old and outdated,
but rather to look to Jesus as the fulfillment of all those things.
So it’s not going backwards and then understanding.
It’s re-envisioning and going forwards with new
understandings.
And you’re going to see that played out right from the very beginning of this book.
That’s a consistent theme,
I think, Michael.
The law had failings.
The priests had failings.
The previous sacrifices in the previous temple had failings.
And Jesus has no faults.
Jesus is the perfect representation of what God intends for the people.
And therefore, again, supersedes the old covenant in every way.
And I think by extension,
we could say confirms that the book
of Hebrews isn’t maybe big on that language,
but I think we could see that in it.
So right from the
start here, you start with the idea of Jesus being superior to the angels.
And that ties directly into
the reality that Jesus was also fully human.
And this is a very robust understanding of who Jesus
Christ is, fully God,
fully man.
And it’s significant because the author of Hebrews is going to quickly
turn once we get past the second chapter to talking about how the human sacrifices,
which were essentially stopped at measures because of human sinfulness,
can only really have an ultimate
conclusion if God, the perfecter and creator of everything,
isn’t involved.
Humans are fallible,
and so therefore our ability to atone for our sin is fallible,
that we can only do what God tells us
to do.
But the author of Hebrews start to say,
but Jesus isn’t just a human,
he’s God.
And as creator,
therefore he lives outside of that sinfulness and can do for us what we couldn’t have done for ourselves.
But yet the author turns right away to say,
but that doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t fully human,
because God couldn’t have helped us if God wasn’t human.
God couldn’t solve human problems if God
wasn’t a human.
So it’s just this beautiful sort of start to a book that says that God has a tailor
made solution to the problem we created,
and it required a kind of answer that no one saw coming.
Yeah, and I think that as the author paints that picture of Christ as superior,
the author then asks us to keep our eyes on that so that we both exalt Christ, which is appropriate,
and follow Christ and not return to any of the lesser ways.
There may be a sense here in which the
author is warning those Jewish Christians not to go backwards.
We’ve seen that in,
you know, some of Paul’s letters, especially circumcision.
I will say that I think as you read this book,
try to take each shift on its own and read it carefully.
There’s a sense in which this can be
repetitive, right, Michael?
I mean, you start off with Christ is better than the angels,
then better than Moses,
then better than Joshua,
then better than the high priests,
then better than Abraham.
And there’s a sense about three or four turns in where you think,
“I’ve seen this before.” But if you carefully look at each transition and the case that the author
is making in that specific situation,
I think you can really learn a lot from this letter.
And I think you can see it build toward the transition point,
which I would say happens around chapter
10.
But until then, do your best not to think,
“Oh, I’ve read this before.” Because you really
haven’t.
If you read carefully,
you haven’t read it before.
You read something like it,
but each turn, the author does something different that helps build the whole case.
I think you’re exactly right,
Clint.
And I think the idea that it’s building
can be seen pretty clearly with one simple word.
When you’re reading the book of Hebrews,
I would be very attuned to the word “therefore.” Whenever you see the word “therefore,” something is being closed,
and now there’s going to be a new thing built on top of it.
So when you see
“therefore,” pause and think,
“Well, what was the thing that we just had before?” And then start
turning your attention to,
“Well, what’s the thing that’s going to come ahead?” Because if you do
that, you’re going to see “therefore,” “therefore,” “therefore,” and we start building a base of,
“Because of this thing is true,
therefore this thing is true.” And we won’t bore you with all
of the realities of that.
But this letter, as we said, is fashioned like a sermon.
And in ancient public speaking,
there were conventions of ways in which you would do it.
And the way of building a case like this,
slowly and methodically, and including these kind of
examples and citations, all of these are markers of that kind of public speaking.
And if we, like you’re saying, Clint, rush through and say, “Well, yeah,
Jesus is the greatest and the best,
and we all know that.
Let’s keep on moving.” You’re going to miss these different layers in the structure.
And quite frankly, the turn that happens will just not have the gravity.
It was intended to have.
Yeah, the author does this thing then and now,
used to be, now it is.
And I would echo that 100 percent,
Michael, and I would point out two of those
“therefores.” The first one in chapter 6,
where the author warns people against going back.
In other words, if now is complete and then was incomplete,
then don’t fall away.
Don’t go backwards.
Verse 4 here, “It’s impossible to restore again to repentance those who have been
enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the
goodness of the Word and then fallen away,
since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of
God.” In other words,
there are people that are going back to a lesser sacrifice,
a lesser priest, a lesser covenant, and they’re being lost because of that.
And then, I think the big “therefore” as
I read this book is in the 19th verse of chapter 10.
I really think if you look at this book as a
sermon, that’s the major hinge that I see in it.
Because of all of this theological truth that has
been laid out in the nature of the covenant,
this is where we take the turn on how we live and our
response to it.
And then we get that,
you know, the great roll call of the faith,
what it means to live by faith.
In other words, I think this is as the author,
the preacher, moves toward conclusion,
this is the “so what” section.
This is the “what do we take with us?
How does this change things?
How does this affect us?” For nine and a half,
ten and a half chapters,
the author has been making
this case, and now having made it,
he turns to “this is what it means to you.” Absolutely,
Clint, I thought the same thing as I read it.
That therefore has a weight and gravity in this
argument that would be hard to miss.
You switch from essentially making the case of “this is what
Christ is” and “this is what Christ means” to “therefore now how shall we live?” And I think an
interesting thing about this book is it’s sprinkled with some passages that I’m almost certain you
would know by heart.
Things like “for the world of God is alive and active,
sharper than any double
edged sword that penetrates even to dividing the soul and spirit joints and marrow.” That’s a very
popular verse.
There’s lots of others you’re going to find in here.
“Faith is the assurance of things
hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.
Since we’re surrounded by a great cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings closely.
Let us run with perseverance
the race before us.” There are some wonderful devotional verses in here.
I think there’s chapter 13 is full of that kind of language.
Michael, I’ve never really thought of this before,
but in some ways Hebrews is a very good Christianity 101 book.
Particularly, I think, if you can read it acknowledging that it was especially so for Jewish believers who were
making the transition from Judaism to Christianity,
but even for us on the other side of that
transition, I think this is a pretty good introduction to Christian theology kind of book.
I would agree with that,
Clint, and I think I would also say that to modern readers,
we may find it difficult to understand some of the extreme emphasis in this book on what we see called Christ’s sacrifice,
because I don’t think we often think of the solution to our problems,
the sacrificing of another thing.
We tend to like to think that we can solve our own problems,
and that’s an assumption that this author does not share at all.
This author, all the way back
to the early chapters talking about Jesus being the greatest high priest,
this author assumes that human sinfulness requires temporary human sacrifice.
In other words, that God calls us to
these temporary sacrificial measures so that while we commit sin,
we can put that sin on to other
things, and that that will temporarily appease God’s judgment.
But the author wants to say that
that was never a long-term solution,
that Jesus, because he’s perfect,
Jesus because he’s God,
and Jesus because he’s man,
can be the perfect high priest.
He can be the perfect intercessor
between us and God.
He could be in the middle,
and because of that,
the eternal answer to human
sinfulness is Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.
And so I think you’re exactly right,
Clint.
This book is really a Christian theology 101,
but you have to check some of your natural assumptions at the door,
and you have to be humble enough and willing to enter into the beginning of this author’s assumption.
And that is that we are broken and that the temporary solution to that needs an ultimate solution.
And if you can do that,
you’re going to see in this how this author has made a
compelling case that it’s Jesus.
So good insights, Michael, and I’d only add that I think we see in
that how seriously this author takes sin.
We often think that sin has a consequence,
but the author grows out of a tradition and an assumption that believes sin has a punishment,
that there must be a punishment visited upon something or someone.
And of course, in the Old Testament,
those are the animals that are sacrificed,
and he’s now making this theological case that for
Christians, that becomes the very Son of God who became human,
that that one is punished for us,
and that that sacrifice is perfect in a way that no other sacrifice could be.
Therefore, it is final.
It doesn’t need repeated.
It doesn’t need revisited.
It fulfills all the things that
our sin demands and therefore sets us free from our sin to live a new kind of life.
And it’s not surprising that most of the instructional material in this book gets put in at the end.
You know, chapter 10, 11,
12, and 13 are full of that kind of stuff.
Just that basic,
now here’s what your
life should look like because of what Christ did.
And that’s good preaching to connect our ethics
to Christ’s work.
And in that order is the right way to do it.
I think I would point our attention just briefly to chapter 11 in that section you’re talking about
Clint, where the point is really being driven home.
And I think that chapter 11 is actually
a really excellent example of the merit of the kind of reading of the New Testament we’re doing
right now, because chapter 11, verse one, I’m certain you’ve heard this at some point.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
And if you just find this verse by itself,
it is often talked about in Christian circles as faith accomplishing things for us.
I have faith that this outcome will happen.
I have faith that this resource will be
given to me.
I have faith that healing is going to come.
We often think of this faith as in the
thing it accomplishes for us.
What you find when you read this book is this entire roll call of
all the people who have faith.
Their faith is them living in this current earthly moment with
their eyes beyond this moment.
In other words, they’re living with the troubles and difficulties of their life.
And yet they’re able to see beyond it to the heavenly place where everything is made perfect in Christ.
Faith, in other words,
isn’t about them getting things from a vending machine, God.
It’s them putting their hope and confidence in who God is beyond them.
And in that we see
this call for us to do the same.
Whether you’re in prison for your faith,
whether you’re persecuted, whether you’re in difficult moments,
faith is seeing beyond that to something that is more perfect, more eternal,
more permanent.
And if we do that,
then we’re participating in this.
So I think, once again, it’s another nugget in this book that gets pulled out.
But in context,
it fits perfectly as to what this author is trying to tell us.
Michael, there are two things I love about this 11th chapter.
And the first is,
if you just look at how often the phrase by faith is repeated.
So the author here is weighing a
little bit on the faith versus works.
He’s made a case,
as Paul did, that we access the grace that
we have been given in Christ through faith.
But then he essentially says,
“Every good thing you’ve
ever heard of from any person in the history of God’s family has acted by faith.
By faith this happened, and by faith this happened,
and by faith that happened.” And I think the connection of that
as an active thing,
that our works, our best efforts are laid upon the foundation of faith.
That is faith that undergirds what we seek to do as we try to be obedient and faithful.
And the other thing I like about this chapter and this approach is this idea that in faith,
we share a connection with all of those who have gone before us.
That what we are trying to do,
as we seek to live out a life of service to Christ,
connects us to all those who have done the same,
even those who lived before Christ.
Because it’s an extension of the covenant that
God has provided, the care,
the direction, the guidance that God has provided.
And this idea that we take our place in this exceedingly long line of faithful people,
and we inherit that call
to move forward in our day and our time and practice these things,
to be faithful, to live by faith.
And the transition we spoke about the word therefore,
but he begins chapter 12,
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses,
let us” and then he moves
on to talk about what it means for us that we inherit this calling to live by faith.
I think it’s a really strong chapter.
And I think I would just point out a small thing there,
Clint, is that we sometimes,
I think, get a little put off by how far we are chronologically from even
the earliest Christians to the tune of thousands of years.
And sometimes we feel separated from
these letters that we are now reading.
They feel like there’s a gulf between us and them.
But remember,
the people who received this letter were thousands of years removed from Abraham.
Thousands of years removed from this family of faith.
And so the gulf existed for them as we
experience it.
And this author says,
with such beautiful confidence,
like you said, Clint, having this great cloud of witnesses,
it’s in the active sense,
they’re here around us.
We have the witnesses surrounding us.
It’s like the stadium that we’re running into cheering,
be full of faith, be faithful.
Run the race with your eyes beyond the thing in front of you.
See, be armed to the
greatest, to Christ the fulfillment.
And there’s this wonderful, inspiring,
not just inspiring to us
as an individual, but inspiring call to the church in this time and place to be the church.
And it is a connection not only to this community of believers,
but it’s a connection,
like you said, Clint, all the way back to the very beginning of God’s story.
I think, Michael, the idea that we stand in this line of what Hebrews calls the heroes of the faith
is both encouraging and humbling,
which I think is exactly what the author intends.
We look to those
who have gone before us and what they’ve done as they pursued faithfulness.
And we’re encouraged by that in our struggle.
And not surprisingly,
the 12th chapter that begins with that verse of
the cloud of witnesses goes on to talk about enduring trials,
enduring oppression,
enduring persecution,
discipline.
And that’s the connection that as we seek to be faithful,
as they endured their hardships,
we may have to do the same.
Yeah, and I think as you get into chapter 12,
you’re going to find some phrases that are very
similar to Paul’s writings in the letters that we’ve already read.
Some comments about avoiding
sexual immorality, living in peace,
demonstrating holiness,
making sure that the grace of God is on display.
Regardless of the author of this letter and where we find the community that this was
sent to and some of those textual questions,
I do think what is striking here is in the midst of
this sermon, this building case, we get to the exact same thing that Paul was trying to speak
into the lives of those other communities.
It ends up looking the same thing because of Christ,
therefore this.
And what we see is,
I think, not just a cloud of witnesses as in these heroes of
faith, it’s the cloud of witnesses of the entire New Testament that the reality of Jesus,
as we see portrayed in the first 11 chapters of this book,
that reality changes things.
And it looks like us
now being fashioned as people called to live in relationship with one another.
And that requires right relationship.
It requires discipline.
Those exact words are used here.
It requires abstaining from sinfulness, especially that sinfulness that divides us.
And so once again,
we see it come back
to in this book,
not only a teaching of what it is we should believe,
but even more importantly,
how it makes us one community and what it looks like for us to be members of that community.
Yeah, I think I would argue that most of the practical teaching in this book is late.
Having done the theological work,
the author now moves to our response to it.
And this is where I think
we get the ethical stuff.
Pursue peace with everyone.
Chapter 13 probably has the most of
that stuff in it.
Let mutual love continue.
Show hospitality to strangers.
Let the marriage be held
in honor by all.
Let the marriage bed be kept undefiled.
Keep your lives free from the love
of money.
Be content with what you have.
Remember your leaders.
Summarized, I think, perhaps with verse 16,
do not neglect to do good and to share what you have,
for such sacrifices are pleasing
to God.
For the author, it seems crystal clear that if we understand who Christ is and what
he’s done, it’s going to affect the way we live.
And that breaks down into some very practical,
daily kind of rituals and routines that all of us are called to do.
And you and I who have had to
try and put sermons together know that the goal is always to try and connect theological
thinking with implementation.
And here it is.
You could read this 13th chapter.
And if you get through
this and don’t feel like one of those verses is aimed at you,
I’m not sure you’ve paid attention.
There’s something in here,
I think, for probably everybody.
I couldn’t agree more,
Clint.
And in fact, I think it’s interesting you turn to verse 16.
I was looking at verse 15,
where it says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise,
the fruit of lips
that openly profess his name.” And like any good sermon that started,
remember those opening notes about sacrifice?
Who’s sacrificing for us?
Jesus.
Who’s sacrifice is perfect?
Jesus.
How does this book end?
We should make a sacrifice of praise.
Of course, our sacrifice isn’t even of
the same type as Jesus’s sacrifice.
But because of Jesus’s sacrifice,
we make a sacrifice of praise.
Because of his offer of his life,
we offer up our lives in constant response of thanksgiving.
Because he gave, we give.
And so I think these are maybe some preacher’s notes in the sense of,
you can see these themes that the book began with,
the book ends with,
the place that may have
started in a very theological conversation ends with very practical implementation,
to use your word, Clint.
And I do hope as you open this book and as you read it,
don’t get caught on autopilot.
Don’t get caught in a cycle of reading through things because you see the word faith again,
or sacrifice again, or better again.
Slow down, read carefully, try to think what’s happening
here.
And I think as you get to the end,
that all builds to this point where it really does hit home
and it really does carry a very practical,
what does it mean to be full of faith for me today?
And it really lands.
And I think it does it well.
I think it’s a very good bridge from fairly
sophisticated, deep theology to what does this mean for me and what do I take from it?
And Michael,
in my opinion,
Hebrews also has the best closing words of maybe any letter in the New Testament.
When I was in Texas,
the pastor I worked with closed nearly every service with these words.
“Now may the God of peace who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great shepherd of
the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you complete in every good work so that you
may do his will,
working among us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen.” That’s a great benediction,
really strong words.
And those are the words that we’re going to leave you with today.
We are really thrilled to be able
to dive into this book.
I think like Clint shared at the beginning,
in some ways I don’t think Hebrews
has been on the radar enough.
And so as you read,
I hope that you can see the depth of wisdom and
also the really practical insight as to what it means to be a Christ follower.
Friends, thank you for joining us for this conversation.
It means so much that you take time out of your week to do so.
We look forward to seeing you again next week as we continue our conversation,
as we go through the entire New Testament in 90 days.
Thanks.