Tuesday Night Bible Study Notes Hebrews
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Tuesday Night Bible Study Notes April 25, 2017 Hebrews 6-7 Hebrews 6 (continued) V14 continued - Did God bless Abraham? Yes, in many ways. He gave him a son as promised even though he was very old, and it seemed impossible, made his descendants numerous, a great nation, and who are his descendants? Israel, yes, but also Christians, all who believe! Romans 4:11, 17 (note “nations”). SEE Romans 4:1- 25, and note v21. The SO WHAT: What has God promised you? This is only a partial list of God’s promises in the bible: Salvation in Christ (Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38), victory over death (1 Cor. 15:57) and eternal life (John 10:27, 28), all things that happen in the life of a believer work together for good (Rom 8:28), rewards (1 Cor. 3:13-14), peace even in storms (John 14:27), Forgiveness (1 John 1:9), fruit bearing (John 15, Eph. 5:22, 23), His Spirit to live within you, He will supply all our needs (Phil 4), Security, Guidance from God and prayers will be answered (Luke 11:9 – 13), Freedom from sin (Romans 6:14), His grace is sufficient, that we needn’t work to earn his favor (2 Cor. 12:9, Eph. 2:8-10), hope (Heb. 6:19), abundant life (John 10:10), Joy (John 15:11), a new ‘family’ (Matt. 19:29) and Phil 2:12, 13 says God will work in you! V15 Abraham wasn’t totally patient (the incident with Hagar), but we can be glad that God understood his partial failure because we sometimes fail. But Abe did take God at his word, and believed him. “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” The same is true for Christians like you and me today. Why is it so hard for us to be patient? When we’re suffering, we wonder, “will God come through?” and we must remind ourselves that He does, and remember examples from the Bible and in our own lives! We ought to keep a journal of answered prayer. V16 - 18 What are the two immutable (unchangeable things)? They may be the oath made to Abraham respecting a Son, the Messiah; and the second could refer to Christ's priesthood, recorded in Psa. 110:4: "Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” But another view has the two things as God swearing by Himself and the promise itself. Thus God gave Abraham double assurance that He would indeed deliver what He had promised. He gave him the assurance of the promise of the God who does not lie and the assurance that God specially guaranteed that particular promise with an oath. The two unchangeable things are probably God's promise and His oath. John Mac Arthur comments: The pledge of God's oath to the believer is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Three times Paul referred to the Holy Spirit as God's pledge to believers (2 Cor. 1:22, 5:5). Ephesians 1:14 talks about the "earnest [Gk. arrabon, "pledge"] of the Spirit." In modern Greek, arrabon is used to refer to an engagement ring, a pledge of marriage. Because of God's gracious pledge, my salvation is secured by the Holy Spirit. God can’t lie. The writer goes on to say "It was impossible for God to lie" and "we might have a strong consolation." The phrase "strong consolation" comes from the Greek word parakleo which means a "strong encouragement" or "strong confidence." The writer adds, "Who have fled for refuge." The SO WHAT: God's strong promise to Abraham then can be a great encouragement to us now because God has also promised us future blessings. Specifically, He has promised us the possibility of receiving rewards when we see Him if we persevere faithfully now (2 Tim. 2:12). What do we need refuge from? Our own sin, our own punishment and this sinful world! The word “refuge” is a reference to the ancient cities of refuge in Canaan which appear here as a picture of the refuge in Christ. Josh. 20 records the establishment of six cities of refuge: Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth-Gilead, and Golan. A man who had accidentally committed homicide could take refuge from the avenger of blood in one of these cities. Collectively, these cities are a sort of picture of the church, in which safety from the avenger of blood (Satan) may be received only by entering into and remaining within the sanctuary. V19 Anchor - The anchor was a common figure for hope in the ancient world. Here it especially reminds us that we are anchored to something firm, but unseen. And these Jewish Christians who were so discouraged needed some hope! Coffman’s commentary is beautiful on the “anchor”: “…an anchor is not doing any good at all as long as it is visible. It is only when it disappears in the deep beneath that it stabilizes and protects the ship; how beautiful is the imagery of Christ's also being out of sight from Christians, having disappeared into the unseen world, but who is nevertheless connected with Christians by the strong and effective cable of his love, just as the anchor, though unseen, is connected to the ship by a mighty chain.” As our High Priest, Jesus is the anchor of our souls, the One who will forever keep us from drifting away from God. The believer is anchored to God by His relationship with Christ and can be confident because it is "within the veil" (v. 19). The curtain in the temple which separated men from God was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross symbolizing that those who believe would now have access to God because of forgiveness and faith (Mark 15:38, 39). The hope for the Christian is Christ the Lord, who has entered into that which is beyond the veil, that is, into heaven itself (the holy of holies was where the presence of God dwelt, and that is really just a picture of heaven); and this corresponds to the actions of the ancient high priest who was typical of Christ in that he went into the Holy of Holies, behind the veil, in the tabernacle. These verses teach eternal security – an anchor firm and secure! SEE Jude 1:24. When Jesus entered the heavenly Holy of Holies, he did not leave afterwards, as did the Aaronic high priests. Rather, "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3). And Jesus remains there forever as the Guardian of our souls. Such absolute security is almost incomprehensible. Not only are our souls anchored within the impregnable, inviolable heavenly sanctuary, but our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, stands guard over them as well! How can the Christian's security be described as anything but eternal? V20 "forerunner" (KJV and NAS) NIV has “went before us”- the implications are so extensive. It means that where Christ has gone his disciples will follow, that where he is there they may be. The high priest wasn’t a forerunner, since the people couldn’t follow him into that Holy Of Holies, God’s presence. But because Jesus’ sacrifice was so great and was accepted by God, we may follow him right into God’s presence! How awesome is that?! The writer was ready now to proceed to serve the solid food he said his readers needed to eat (5:14—6:1). This spiritual meat was concerning the present high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ and relating that to Melchizedek. CHAPTER 7 The writer to the Hebrews will explain a theme that he has introduced back in Hebrews 2:17: Jesus as our High Priest, and our representative. He had begun to discuss the issue in Hebrews 5:10, but had to spend some time warning these discouraged Christians about the danger of not continuing and progressing in their Christian life. These Jewish Christians probably had an intellectual objection to the idea. This is because Jesus did not come from the priestly tribe (the tribe of Levi) or the priestly family (the family of Aaron). The writer to the Hebrews wants to remove these intellectual problems the Jewish Christians had with the gospel. These intellectual hang-ups were keeping them from continuing to maturity in Jesus. In the same way, too many Christians are hung up on intellectual things that could be resolved so they could move on with Jesus. If a Christian is hung up on issues like creation and evolution, the validity of miracles, or other such things, they should get the issues resolved so they can move on with Jesus. This chapter is also important because it shows us how we should think of the Old Testament institutions of the priesthood and the Law. We’ll also revisit our mysterious friend Melchizedek again in greater detail. V1-3 What we know of Melchizedek: SEE Genesis 14:17-20, Heb 5:6-10, plus Psalm 110:4. After Abraham defeated the confederation of kings who took his nephew Lot captive, he met with a mysterious priest named Melchizedek, who was also king over the city of Salem (an ancient name for the city of Jerusalem). God was Israel’s king. Jesus is being spoken of in Psalm 110 as God’s son, which makes him a king, but the reason this is here is to note that Jesus is the only Jew ever called King and Priest.