Monday, February 17, 2014

Week #10 - NOTES on Hebrews


REVIEW:
THE WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
   ·      A better promise
   ·      A better priest/priesthood
   ·      A better covenant
   ·      A better tabernacle/temple
   ·      A better sacrifice.

Jesus’ sacrifice is better because it reaches to the depths of the personality. Jesus has gone into the very heart of the presence of God, into the place where God lives in light and holiness.
So, the effects of His sacrifice shouldn’t just be felt on the outside and a bodily sense for us. But, it’s felt in the inward depths of who we are… in our holy of holies at our core… where we are who we really are.
We will lots about the “conscience” in 9:14, 10:22, 10:22 and 13:18. Each time stressing the fact that under the new covenant there is purification which goes to the very center of things. Your “guilty conscience” is a tool of the enemy and not a work of the Holy Spirit!
Now, God’s people can serve Him gladly and joyfully without even the slightest shadow or blemish on our consciences.
We are free from fear and guilt. We can love, serve, encourage and work with joy!

Jesus is the WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: He’s a better sacrifice! (9:9-10, 9:14, 9:26, and 10:1)
   ·      Read 10:1-18
   ·      The idea is, that under the ancient sacrifices there was an imperfect representation: a dim outline of the blessings which the Gospel would impart to people.
   ·      Mirror 10:17 “This is final: I have deleted the record of your sins and misdeeds. I no longer recall them.”
   ·      (STEDMAN) To put it simply, we must see what we already ARE by God's grace, in order to manifest that fact by godly behavior.
   ·      Sacrifices
o   Christ’s sacrifice takes away sin
o   Christ’s sacrifice needs to happen only once
o   Sacrifices under the old covenant could not deal with the problem of sin and guilt in the consciences of the worshipper.
o   In fact, God doesn’t really want our sacrifices (1Samuel 15:22, Isaiah 1:10-17, Hosea 6:6, Mathew 9:13 and 12:7). They point to something better… something God himself will accomplish. (Hebrews 10:5-10)
o   The law cannot be regarded as the final word. What Jesus has done is.
o   Everything keeps coming back to Jesus. He is as we humans were intended, he is the high priest, he is the perfect sacrifice, and he is the new covenant. All these things belong together.
   ·      (NTW) The result of discovering, with the help of the OT, what Jesus has achieved is to realize that he has fulfilled God’s purposes as set out in Scripture, so that the only wise place is to be with Him, rather than with those who cling to the signposts instead of the reality.

Leviticus 1-7
   ·      Burnt, Peace, Guilt, Sin and other offerings.
   ·      Walked through these particularly chapter 4.
   ·      Conclusion in 7:37-38

(STEDMAN 105) The writer also declares the death of Jesus, by fulfilling the will of the Father, completely replaces the provision of animal deaths, which had provided some degree of forgiveness before. Finally, he announces the only possible conclusion: it is by the fulfillment of the will of God in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we have been made holy. The Greek expression for MADE HOLY indicates action with a lasting effect. We have been made holy by the death of Jesus, and we remain holy even though we struggle with the daily weakness and sin. It is a holiness obtained by faith, not by self-righteous effort, and it is not lost by momentary failure. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Romans 8:1)
   ·      Looked at Romans 8:1-11

FINAL ACT: WORD OF FAITH - Hebrews finishes with faith!
Notes
   ·      Read 10:19-11:3
   ·      Provisions of Faith
o   We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place since everything rests on the blood of Jesus.
o   We have a competent high priest who advocates for us.
   ·      Privileges of Faith
o   Drawing near to God – nothing separates (Romans 8)
o   Sharing in hope
o   Spurring one another on
§  Love
§  Good deeds
§  Meeting together
§  Encouragement
§  Mirror 10:24 “Good actions give voice and volume to the love of God.”
   ·      Another warning against those who deliberately keep on “deliberately” sinning even after they fully understand the truth of the gospel.
o   There is no other sacrifice than Jesus who will take away their sin.
o   They have trampled Jesus under foot.
o   They have treated the blood of Jesus as less than it is.
o   They have insulted the Spirit of grace.
o   Galatians 2:18-21 – Law practice spits in the eyes of grace.
   ·      (NTW) This passage, then, is a warning about a more specific danger: that someone who has come close to Christian faith, and perhaps shared in the life of Christian worship, will then turn around and publicly deny it all. As we noted when looking at 6:1-8, this seems to relate to a quite specific situation of persecution, coming from the direction of non-Christian Judaism, directed (as that of Saul of Tarsus had been) against fellow Jews who were embracing Jesus as Messiah. …WE should be all the more eager that there will never come a time when we might give in to the temptation to declare the whole thing was worthless.
   ·      Internal and external persecution can cause us to focus on that which is familiar instead of our actual freedom in grace.
   ·      SIDE NOTE: these verses give clear indication of terrible persecution like in Acts 8 or 1 Thessalonians 2… this also gives indication that an author like Silas is probable as part of the Jerusalem church and an author of the letters to Thessalonica.

Parallel Passages:
   ·      Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11
o   The righteous shall live by faith
o   Romans emphasizes righteous/ness.
o   Galatians emphasizes shall live or our new life
o   Hebrews is centered on by faith.

(WW) True faith is confident obedience in spite of circumstances and consequences. God speaks and we hear his Word. We trust his Word and act on it no matter what. The world fails to realize that faith is only as good as its object. And the object of our faith is God himself. This is not a feeling it is our total response to His revelation. As a result, faith enables us to do what others cannot do!
   ·      Faith in HIS power
   ·      Faith in HIS righteousness

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