Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Chapter Links to Hebrew Study

Hebrews Intro
Hebrews 1
Hebrews 2
Hebrews 3
Hebrews 4
Hebrews 5
Hebrews 6
Hebrews 7
Hebrews 8
Hebrews 9
Hebrews 10
Hebrews 11
Hebrews 12
Hebrews 13
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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Hebrews 13

Some believe that Hebrews was a covering letter that accompanied the treatise to the Hebrews.


(1) Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.


There were four words in Greek that we might translate love. Eros was one word for love. It described erotic love. It refers to sexual love. Storge was a second word for love. It refers to family love, the kind of love there is between a parent and child, or between family members in general. Agape is another word for love. It is the most powerful word for love in the New Testament, and is often used to describe God’s love towards us. It is a love that loves without changing. It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting re-payment. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given - it gives because it loves, it does not love in order to receive. Agape love isn’t about feelings, it is about decisions. But the word for love used here is philadelphia, which speaks of a brotherly friendship and affection. It is the love of deep friendship and partnership.


John 13:35: Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.


1 Thessalonians 4:9-10: But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another. Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more.


Philippians 1:9: I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.


1 John 3:14: If we love our Christian brothers and
sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a
person who has no love is still dead.


(2) Don’t forget to show hospitality
to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without
realizing it!


In Genesis 18:2, Abraham received three strangers. Two of these
were ordinary angels, but one was "the Angel of Jehovah," - the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. One never knows when he extends a kindness
or a courtesy to a stranger what the results may be. Two points can be
drawn from this as it pertains to hospitality: 1) When we extend hospitality,
we don't know what kind of effect it will have. The Lord may use our acceptance
of others in some way that blesses them in an extraordinary way. We may
be doing something of extreme significance without knowing it, which may
be the best way to do something of extreme significance. 2) When we extend
hospitality, we are blessed. The angels who were entertained by Abraham
blessed him, relaying to him the promise of God. The physical need for
hospitality today may not be as great as it was in ancient time, but the
spiritual need is just as important in the development and strengthening
of spiritual ties. He says that when they come, they’ll look just
like us. We have no idea how many times the ordinary looking person who
appeared out of the blue to give us a hand had been standing at the throne
of God just a few seconds earlier. Nor do we know how many other times
it happened without our even noticing it. We should be more aware, and
thank all those who offer help as if they were ministering spirits.


In the ancient Roman world, “motels,” where they did exist, were notorious for immorality. It was important for traveling Christians to find open homes from other Christians. This was simply a practical way to let brotherly love continue.


(3) Remember those in prison, as if you
were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt
their pain in your own bodies.


The days of persecution against the church had already
begun when the Hebrew Epistle was written. Paul therefore exhorted his
brethren to remember them as being bound with them. They were to enter
sympathetically into their sufferings. By so doing, their hearts would
go out in compassionate love, and they would discover ways and means by
which they might assist those thus distressed. Today, this would be Christians
in China, Vietnam, North Korea and Muslim countries.


(4) Give honor to marriage, and remain
faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who
are *immoral and those who commit adultery.


*immoral: Greek "pornos"


Paul urged that the marriage relationship should be held
on the high and holy plane upon which God placed it in the very beginning.
Christian men and women are commanded by the Lord to be faithful and true
to their marriage vows. The husband and wife are to be faithful to each other. Immorality
and unfaithfulness should never be known among the people of God. The
exhortation of this verse is of great importance today when the marriage
relationship is looked upon very lightly. Satan and his allies want to destroy what marriage is and if we go down that road, marriage will disappear. We've already reached the point where over half the children born in this country are born out of wedlock.


This may have been said against the opinions of the Essenes who held marriage in little repute, and totally abstained from it themselves as a state of comparative imperfection. At the same time it shows the absurdity of the popish tenet, that marriage in the clergy is both dishonorable and sinful; which is, in fact, in opposition to the apostle, who says marriage is honorable in ALL


The Bible strictly condemns sex outside of the marriage commitment. But the Bible celebrates sexual love within the commitment of marriage, as in The Song of Solomon.


1 Timothy 4:1-3: Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead. They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth.


(5) Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has
said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”


A literal translation would read something like this:
"Not not would I desert you, neither not not would I forsake
you." This is poor English, of course, but if one wants to state
something emphatically, it's excellent Greek. The writer uses a double
negative in the first line and a triple negative in the second line. It's
hard to imagine a more powerful form of expression. The writer uses five
negatives in two lines to say that God's abandonment of us cannot
happen and will not happen.


Someone once asked millionaire Bernard Baruch (a millionaire
by the age of 30), “How much money does it take for a rich man to
be satisfied?” Baruch answered, “Just a million more than
he has.” Real contentment comes only when we trust in God to meet
our needs and to be our security. The antidote to greed and overspending is contentment.


Deuteronomy 31:6, 8: So be strong and courageous! Do
not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your
God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon
you.” Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord
will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither
fail you nor abandon you.”


Joshua 1:5: No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.


1 Chronicles 28:20: Then David continued, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. He will see to it that all the work related to the Temple of the Lord is finished correctly.


Philippians 4:11-13: Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned (by experience) the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.


1 Timothy 6:6,10: Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.



(6) So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I
will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”


Psalm 118:6: The Lord is for me, so I will have
no fear. What can mere people do to me?


(7) Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all
the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.


This clause should be translated, Remember your guides, who have spoken unto you the doctrine of God.


Philippians 3:17: Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.


(8) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever.


He was "the Word" in all eternity - prior to the creation of
the universe. He then, at the proper time, brought into existence the
material worlds. Since then He has been controlling their movements. He
is working all things together for the good of those who love God during
this present age (Romans 8:28). He will return some day, and having lifted
the curse, reign for a thousand year on this earth. After the Millennium
the present universe will pass out of existence. He will then create the
eternal heavens and the eternal earth - as we learn in Revelation, chapters
21 and 22. Thus, the present heavens and earth will pass away, but the
Lord Jesus Christ will remain the same. His love is unchangeable. His
powers are unabated. He is able to meet the situation of the people of
God under all circumstances and at all times. Thus, we can believe with
perfect assurance that He cares for us and that we are His.


Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever was a reminder to the Hebrews of the faithfulness of Jesus. The verse does not describe stony, static sameness, but a living, dynamic constancy. Bruce wrote, "Yesterday Jesus 'offered up entreaties and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death' (Hebrews 5:7); today he represents his people in the presence of God, a high priest who has a fellow-feeling with them in their weakness, because he 'endured trial in all respects like' themselves, 'while remaining free from sin' (4:15); for ever he lives, this same Jesus, 'to intercede for them' (7:25). His help, his grace, his power, his guidance are permanently at his people's disposal; why then should they lose heart?" Thus, the author is encouraging us that Jesus never abandons his role of pioneer-priest.


This verse, by the way, is often misused today. There are those who say because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, he must inevitably do the same in every age that he has done in the past. There are those who use this to defend tongues, faith-healing, etc. Because Christ healed all those who came to him, they insist all who come today must inevitably be healed. But remember this verse does not say Jesus Christ does the same, he is the same. His doing may change according to the times, but his character never changes, it is always the same


Hebrews 1:10-12: He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same; you will live forever.


(9) So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from
God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.


These refers to those who insisted on Judaistic restrictions of diet as having spiritual value. This is seen in our own day in such practices as giving up meat for Lent, burning candles for certain observances, counting beads, or any form or ceremony upon which some religious value is placed. It also tells us to be wary of doctrines brought in after the conclusion of the New Testament - Mormonism, Islam, etc.


(10) We have an altar from which the
priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat.


All through this letter, the writer has told us again and again that such observances are simply empty shadows; they are pointing toward something, but the something they point toward is the real value, not the shadows. You cannot have both the shadow and the substance; it is either one or the other. You cannot feed on the reality if you place value on the mere picture. You cannot have both.


These Jewish Christians had probably been branded as illegitimate by other Jews because they did not continue the Levitical system. But the writer to the Hebrews insists that we have an altar, and it is an altar that those who insist on clinging to the Levitical system have no right to. Essentially, our altar is the cross - the centerpiece of the Christian gospel and understanding (1 Corinthians 1:18-24; 2:1-5).


(11) Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals
into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp.


To eat from the altar is to believe that Christ came in the flesh and that He offered His flesh up for the forgiveness of our sins...we thereby, receive, embrace, and possess the blessings procured by His offering; which is done be means of faith (none but the priests were allowed to eat from the altar under the previous economy).


The offerings on the annual Day of Atonement, as prescribed in Leviticus 16. The high priest would take the blood of a bull and a goat and sprinkle it on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant inside the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle. Unlike many other animals offered for sacrifice, which the priests would be permitted to eat, these animals were not for eating. They were taken outside the camp of Israel and burned as a symbol of the disgrace of sin, borne symbolically by these animals. The point is that if the priests who served the tabernacle had no right to eat from the altar on the Day of Atonement, how much less do they have a right to eat from the altar of the cross, which they don't adhere to but which fulfills all the imagery foreshadowed by the Day of Atonement? Jesus was rejected by the religious institutions of his day—by the priests and elders of the people. He was rejected as Messiah, and he was executed as a criminal outside the walls of the city. We should expect in our day as well to find Christ outside the structures of rich and powerful religious institutions that exist increasingly to serve themselves.


Leviticus 6:30: But the offering for sin may not be eaten if its blood was brought into the Tabernacle as an offering for purification in the Holy Place. It must be completely burned with fire.


Leviticus 16:27: The bull and the goat presented as sin offerings, whose blood Aaron takes into the Most Holy Place for the purification ceremony, will be carried outside the camp. The animals’ hides, internal organs, and dung are all to be burned.


(12) So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his
people holy by means of his own blood.


This introduces a concluding explanation of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement imagery. He is both the high priest, who makes the offering, and the offering itself. His blood "sanctifies" us, making us holy to the Lord, and like the animals who were burned outside the camp of Israel in the wilderness, Jesus suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem. His blood brings out all the beauty that God created in us, and he makes us radiant for relationship with God (9:13-14, 10:10, 14, 29). Suffering outside Jerusalem, banished from the holy precincts of the temple, he bore the disgrace of sin.


(13) So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he
bore.


That is, without the camp of Judaism, without the law of Israel, and without that religious system; let's go outside of it. Those who have `boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus' (Hebrews 10:19), will also have grace given to go to Him without the camp, leaving behind the types and shadows that could never bring to maturity nor touch the conscience.


By leaving the city, so to speak, we leave behind that which is comfortable, familiar and safe. We leave the old ways of dealing with sin. We leave behind the old ways of atonement, which depended on a set way of doing things. In the old way, we depend upon ourselves to deal with our shortcomings. We either try to do better or we punish ourselves with guilt. It's a burdensome way, but at least we maintain the illusion of control. So we're drawn to it. In going out to Jesus, and accepting his work of atonement, we are relieved of our burden, but we also give up the illusion of control. It can be frightening. We may suffer "reproach." Others won't be able to control us the way they used to, so we may displease them. We may have a difficult time finding friends; people of passion often do.


The writer therefore provides them with motivation for leaving the "camp" of Israel, so to speak. It concerns seeking an entirely different city. The city of Jerusalem, and the temple within it, is not lasting. Not many years after the time of this writing, in 70 A.D., Jerusalem was sacked by Rome and the temple was destroyed, just as Jesus predicted (Matthew 24:1-2). In the interest of safety and comfort, the readers were tempted to seek out Jerusalem and the temple, but all they provided was an illusion of safety and comfort. They didn't offer the real presence of the Lord. They didn't offer real forgiveness. Now that Christ, the reality behind those symbols, has come, those symbols are no longer necessary. To cling to them as if they were life itself is death itself. The writer is saying that if you want to return to Jerusalem and the temple, you're returning to something that isn't lasting. And, yes, going out to Jesus, outside the camp, may cost you, but you're not giving up anything other than that which is doomed for destruction.


(14) For this world is not our permanent
home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.


The Jews looked to Jerusalem as their spiritual center. In a figurative
manner we too have a city. Ours is not an abiding one here and now; but
we have one that is to come. We are walking
by faith and not by sight. We are not interested in the material things
of life now. On the contrary we are seeking that city which has foundations
whose maker and builder is God. Like the patriarchs of old we are walking
by faith.


By leaving the city, not only are you not losing anything, you are gaining
plenty. The word translated "for" in verse 14 is an emphatic,
as is the word translated "looking forward." We are seeking something
very intensely. An intense desire for another kind of city draws us outside
the gates of the present city. This is a heavenly city. It is what Abraham
and the other believers in Hebrews 11 were seeking and desiring (11:13-16).
It's a different kind of Jerusalem, what John calls "new Jerusalem"
(Revelation 21:2). When John is given a vision of this city, he says,
"I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." (Revelation 21:22). The new Jerusalem is filled with the actual presence of the Lord.


(15) Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise
to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.


The Jews believed that, in the time of the Messiah, all sacrifices, except the sacrifice of praise, should cease. To this maxim the apostle appears to allude; and, understood in this way, his words are much more forcible. This was, in effect, quoting the authority of one of their own maxims, that now was the time of the Messiah; that Jesus was that Messiah; that the Jewish sacrificial system was now abolished; and that no sacrifice would now be accepted of God, except the sacrifice of praise for the gift of his Son.


Romans 12:1: And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.


(16) And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need.
These are the sacrifices that please God.


(17) Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is
to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for
your benefit.


(18) Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably
in everything we do.


(19) And especially pray that I will be able to come back to you soon.


(20) Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our
Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—


Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd; I give my life for the sheep" (John 10:11).


Ezekiel 34:23: And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them.


(21) may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. *May he produce
**in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.


*May he produce
in you: May He make you fully matured, in every good work to do His will.


**in you: Some manuscripts read in us.


(22) I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to pay attention to what
I have written in this *brief exhortation.


*brief exhortation: Would you consider the letter to the Hebrews "brief"?


2 Peter 3:15: And remember, the Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—


(23) I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been *released from
jail. If he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you.


*released from
jail: Greek - apolelumenon - Is sent away. There is no evidence that Timothy had been imprisoned. It is possible that the apostle refers here to his being sent into Macedonia, Philippians 2:19-24, in order that he might bring the apostle an account of the affairs of the Church in that country.


(24) Greet all your leaders and all the believers there. The believers
from Italy send you their greetings.


   It is also possible to interpret the phrase to mean "those Italians who are here with me send greetings to you back home in Rome." This has been the more usual interpretation and is the traditional way the book has been understood.


(25) May God’s grace be with you all.


2 Thessalonians 3:17-18: Here is my greeting in my own handwriting—Paul. I do this in all my letters to prove they are from me. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.


Philippians 4:23: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.



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