Understanding hebrews

Understanding Hebrews

The Message of HebrewsCreated by-The Messenger of Truth

Introduction

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS IS A VERY CHALLENGING BOOK FOR A CHRISTIAN OF 21ST CENTURY. IT DEALS WITH CERTAIN CONCEPTS THAT ARE NO LONGER IN PRACTICE. THERE ARE SOME VERSES WHICH WE FIND DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND.

THE AUTHOR

• LET’S START WITH THE AUTHORSHIP OF HEBREWS .WELL THE ANSWER IS QUITE SIMPLE “UNKNOWN”.

• MANY PEOPLE CONCLUDED WITH HEBREWS AUTHOR AS PAUL BECAUSE KING JAMES VERSION TITLED IT AS EPISTLE OF PAUL

• BUT IT’S NEVER WRITTEN IN THE WHOLE EPISTLE .

THE AUTHOR

• BUT THEN TOO WE HAVE CERTAIN CLUES IN SCRIPTURES BY WHICH WE CAN CONCLUDE THE AUTHOR

• THE AUTHOR HAD DEEP KNWOLEDGE OF JEWISH HISTORY

• HE WAS ALSO FAMILIAR WITH THE DEEPEST KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OLD TESTAMENT AND OTHER JEWISH PRACTICES

THE AUTHOR

BY THIS SOME WE CAN FIGURE OUT POSSIBLE CANDIDATES :-

• BARNABAS – • WAS FROM PRIESTLY TRIBE OF LEVI (ACTS

4:36)• WAS COMPANION OF PAUL AND WIDELY

RESPECTED. {TRITULLIAN WROTE IN 200 AD THE HEBREWS UNDER NAME OF BARNABAS

THE AUTHOR

• APOLLOS :-• A NATIVE OF ALEXANDRIA {WE CAN FIND

ALEXANDRIAN CONCEPT OF SHADOWS AND REALITY AFTER IT.}

• HAD THOROUGH SCRIPTURE OF KNOWLEDGE • WAS A COMPANION OF PAUL

THE AUTHOR

• PAUL :-• PAUL AT TIMES WROTE IN A DIFFERENT

SECRETIVE STYLE • HE OFTEN USES HIS COMPANIONS TO WRITE

ON BEHALF OF HIM LIKE TIMOTHY SO THE SHORT ANWER REMAINS TRUE THAT

WE DON’T KNOW

THE AUDIENCE

• THE AUDIENCE OF THE EPISTLE IS VERY CLEAR BECAUSE ITS CLEARLY WRITTEN :-

• HEBREWS WHO WERE FACING BIG QUESTIONS ON WHETHER TO CONTINUE THE OLD CUSTOM OF JEWS OR TO START A NEW RELATION

THE AUDIENCE

• THE MAIN QUESTION WAS SUCH • HOW HIGHLY WE REGARD OR PLACE JESUS?• HOW MUCH OF SALVATION DEPENDS ON

JESUS AND HOW MUCH ON OTHER THINGS ?• SHOULD WE CONTINUE THE JEWISH

CUSTOMS OR GO WITH NEW?• IS THIS PAIN WORTH SUFFURING FOR ?

THE AUDIENCE

• SO THE BOOK OF HEBRWS IS THE ANSWER WITH EVIDENCE OF MANY OF SUCH QUESTIONS

• WHICH LEADS TO THE MAIN MESSAGE OF THE EPISTLE OF HEBREWS:-

JESUS IS GREATER !

JESUS IS GREATER

• GREATER THAN PROPHETS (1:1-3)• GREATER THAN ANGELS (1 :4)• GREATER THAN MOSES ( 3:1-6)• GREATER THAN ISRAEL AND SABBATH(3:7)• GREATER THAN PRIEST (4:14)• GREATER THAN TABERNACLE (8:1-5)• GREATER THAN OLD CONVENANT (8:6-13)

JESUS IS GREATER

• GREATER SACRIFICE (9:7-10)• GREATER PUNISHMENT(RECURRING REFRAIN) • GREATER ERA FOR FAITH (11:1-40)• GREATER CITY (11:10)• GREATER INSIGHT IN TRIALS (12:1-14)• GREATER MOUNTAIN (12:18-24)• GREATER MEAL AND GREATER ALTAR(13:9-10)

GREATER THAN PROPHETS

• In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

GREATER THAN ANGELS

• So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. (1:4)

• And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God’s angels worship him.”(1:6)

• Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?(1:14)

GREATER THAN MOSES

• Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,”[a] bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

GREATER THAN ISRAEL

• Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?(3:16)

• And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?(3:18)

GREATER THAN SABBATH

• For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,[a] just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.(4:8-12)

GREATER THAN PRIEST

• Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

GREATER TABERNACLE

• We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being………

• They (the priest) serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven(8:1-5)

GREATER CONVENANT

• Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant (7:20)

• But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.

• For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. (8:6-7)

GREATER SACRIFICE

• Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.(9:26)

• And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (10:10)

GREATER PUNISHMENT

• For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. (2:2-3)

GREATER PUNISHMENT

• Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.(10:28)

• How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?(10:29)

GREATER ERA FOR FAITH

• These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.(11:39-40)

GREATER CITY

• For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.(11:10)

• And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.(13:12-14)

GREATER INSIGHT IN TRIALS

• Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered (5:8)

• Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?(12:7)

• They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.(12:10)

GREATER MOUNTAIN

• You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm

• But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant (12:18-24)

GREATER MEAL AND GREATER ALTAR

• Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. 10 We have an altar{THE CROSS} from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.(13:9-10)

REALITY REPLACES SHADOW

• It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.(9:23)

• The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.(10:1)

ONCE FOR ALL

• Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.(7:27)

• He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining[a] eternal redemption.(9:12)

ONCE FOR ALL

• Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.(9:26)

• And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.(10:10)