Hebrews week #8 - Adam's Notes

Jesus is the WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: He’s a better priest

KEY VERSES: 7:23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Started with background on Melchizedek

   ·      Genesis 14:17-24

   ·      Psalm 110:1-4

   ·      Hebrews 5:5-10

   ·      Hebrews 6:19-20

Notes

   ·      Read 7:1-28

   ·      Peace and Righteousness

o   King of Shalom à peace, completeness, wholeness, friendship

o   King of Righteousness à dikaiosune, scale of balance, God got it right and put mankind right with him, wise in that which is right.

o   Isaiah 32:17 “the work of righteousness shall be peace”

o   Psalm 85 “righteousness and peace have kissed each other”

o   James 3 “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace”

KEY TEXTS

o   Romans 5 – Righteousness

o   Ephesians 2:13-22 – Peace

   ·      (Mirror 7:12) Melchizedek reveals a new basis for righteousness, related no to man’s effort to keep the law by his own willpower, but based upon the perfect work of Christ. This new law is called the law of faith (Romans 3:27), the law of perfect liberty (James 1:25), and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

   ·      The entire system of the OT law has been fulfilled in Jesus and has been taken out of the way (Colossians 2:13-15).

   ·      The annulling of the law (7:18) meant the abolishing of the current priesthood.

   ·      STEDMAN

o   This section asserts unequivocally that the death and resurrection of Jesus has introduced a new and permanent priesthood that brings the Levitical priesthood to an end and with it, the demise of the law of Moses.

o   The word enguos (“guarantee”), used only here in the NT, describes Jesus’ relationship to the new covenant.

o   We are saved completely by the work and prayers of Jesus.

o   Our Melchizedek is Jesus

§  God’s provision for help in our daily life

§  He’s incomparable in greatness

§  He’s inexhaustible in resource

§  His infinite in patience

§  He’s infallible in wisdom

§  He’s interested in all that concerns us

   ·      Jesus himself is the unique, human road into the very presence of God. When we get there, we can rest, since our access to God in the first place, and our welcome when we arrive, is guaranteed forever.

   ·      The thrust of all of this is to celebrate the fact that, with the coming and achievement of Jesus, God has brought into being the “perfection” which up until then had been impossible.

   ·      We who belong to Jesus are not dependent for our spiritual health and hope upon a system that cannot bring about perfection. We trust in the eternal, fully effective priesthood of the son of God, the Messiah.

This is the kind of High Priest we need! We do still sin from time to time, and we need to be able to turn to Him for spiritual help. As the Great High Priest, Jesus gives us all the grace we need to not sin. But if we do sin, He is our Advocate (1John 2:1-2) and he forgives us and restores us (1 John 1:9).

The priests who served under the law had humanity and weakness, but our High Priest has been perfected. Let’s avail ourselves to His grace.

Our New Priesthood

   ·      1 Peter 2:4-10

   ·      We are now a part of it since Jesus lives in us!

Jesus is the WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: He’s a better covenant!

KEY VERSES:

   ·      7:22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

   ·      8:6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

   ·      8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Why would you play the video game when your favorite sports team is right there?

Notes

   ·      Read 8:1-13

   ·      The presence of a superior high priest in heaven demands a superior covenant if He is to minister effectively to God’s people.

   ·      The better covenant is ministered by a better Priesthood.

   ·      The better covenant is ministered in a better tabernacle (more in 9).

   ·      The better covenant is founded on better promises!

o   The promise of God’s grace.

o   The promise of internal change. (2Corinthians 3)

o   The promise of forgiveness for all.

o   The promise of eternal blessing.

   ·      The promises of Jeremiah

o   An inner understanding of truth

o   An intimate relationship with God

o   An absolute forgiveness of all sins

   ·      Mirror 8:12 “This knowledge of me will never again be based on a sin-consciousness. My act of mercy, extended in Christ as the new Covenant, has removed every possible definition of sin from my memory!”

   ·      Yes Jesus is ministering a better covenant that makes us partakers of a new nature and a new life that only Christ can give.

   ·      (WW) What the unbelieving Jew did not realize was that their religion had grown old and was about to vanish. AD 70 marked the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Roman army. The Jews have not had a temple or a fully functioning priesthood since then.

   ·      Other thoughts

o   We must learn to distinguish between the copy and the reality.

o   This was key as the approaching destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (in 70) was immanent.

o   If Jesus was better than the Temple and its priesthood, how much more is he BETTER than many things which so easily distract us from the single-minded devotion to Jesus.