Bible Studies
Great Themes From Hebrews
Series: Additional StudiesIntroduction:
1. The Bible reveals information about the past, the present, and the future. 2. This is based on God’s transcendence. He stands above time and sees things not seen by human eyes. 3. Beginning students of Scripture and casual readers of the Bible often do not grasp the “big picture” view. They should not be faulted for this any more than an individual with one piece of a picture puzzle should be faulted for not realizing what the completed puzzle looks like. It is just the nature of the circumstance. 4. Additional time and consideration of the biblical text allows for a clearer understanding. As this process takes place excitement is created over each new discovery and as one’s faith grows the excitement becomes even more intense. 5. The Book of Hebrews presents 13 chapters that bring together many elements of the “big picture.” It is especially focused on drawing together themes of the Old Testament and showing their relevance to Christ. 6. There are many great themes in Hebrews. In this lesson we will pick three to focus our attention on as we try to get a glimpse of the “big picture” view of the Bible.Discussion:
I. God spoke (Heb. 1:1-3; 2:1-4).A. This passage identifies two time periods associated with God’s speaking.
1. “Long ago” is the description used of one of these periods.
2. “In these last days,” identifies the second.
B. “Long ago” is associated with God’s speaking to the fathers.
1. He did this through “prophets.”
2. He did it in “many portions.”
3. He did it in “many ways” (ex. dreams, visions, urim and thummim, written messages, direct voice).
C. His speaking “long ago” is contrasted with speaking “in these last days.”
1. “In these last days” He has spoken to us “in His Son.”
2. The magnificence of God communicating is one thing. But greater still is the fact that God is communicating to us in “these last days” in His Son.
3. The writer emphasis the greatness of this experience by talking about just how great God’s Son is. Three things immediately impress the author.
a. First, He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
b. Second, when He had made purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
c. Third, He is much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Usually we think of angels as special spirit beings, but these may be the “messengers/angels” (prophets) that God previously spoke through.
D. He further emphasizes the importance of listening to God’s Son in 2:1-4 by comparing the penalty of not listening to the word spoke through angels (the prophets?) and observing how the word was spoken through the Lord.
E. God speaking to us is serious business, but it is made even more serious because He has spoken to us in His Son.
1. Those bored by, unconcerned about God’s word probably do not understand the nature of what is happening.
2. In my judgment there are varying degrees of comprehension of what it means for God to communicate with us in His Son.
3. For the writer of Hebrews it is an awesome thing; a matter of life and death; for him if there is only one communication you should listen to you better listen to this one.
F. So one of the great themes of Hebrews is “God has spoken to us in His Son.” Chapters 1-10, in one way or another, focus on this fact.
II. A second great theme is summarized in 11:13: “They died in faith.”A. The immediate context suggests that the antecedent to “they” is: Cain, Enoch, Abraham, (Isaac, Jacob), Sarah.
1. I would suggest that these are representatives of “the fathers” (1:1) whom God spoke to “in the prophets” (1:1).
2. The emphasis here is not so much on the fact that they died, but that they died in faith, that is, they died depending on what God had told them.
3. Faith here is not so much about believing that God exists as it is about believing what God said. Less about believing in God and more about believing God.
4. God gave them “assurance of things hoped for,” that is, He gave them hope by assuring them of things that were yet in the future. They “died in faith” resenting confidently on what God had communicated to them.
B. But “they had not received what was promised” (11:13).
1. But they had “conviction of what they had not seen.”
2. They were confident in what God said even though they had not seen it with their own eyes. Thus “they walked by faith and not by sight.”
3. Faith is founded upon the WORD of God.
C. A further description of what they were expecting is described in 11:13bff.
1. What they were expecting was “out of this world.” Thus they confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
2. They were seeking a country of their own.
a. We might think of Abraham leaving Ur and going to the land of Canaan here, but the passage is not satisfied by this.
b. For they were strangers and exiles “on the earth.”
c. “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
d. So it is not an earthly country, but a heavenly one.
e. “God has prepared a city for them” does not refer to an earthly city, but a heavenly city.
D. Abraham was so sure of the integrity of God’s word that he trusted in God enough to offer up his son Isaac (Heb. 11:17-19).
1. This is exactly the kind of faith we need to have in God’s word.
2. This is the kind of faith that all those mentioned in Heb. 11 had and it lead to actions that were quite confusing to other people.
a. Moses gave up being a prince.
b. Israel marched around Jericho expecting the walls to fall down.
c. Rahab allied herself with spies.
d. Others gave their lives in dependence on the promises spoken by God.
E. Do you have this kind of confidence in the word of God?
1. God spoke and they died in faith.
2. It is not so much that they died. Everyone one does that, but they lived their life in faithful confidence in the promises that God had made.
3. The object of those promises was a heavenly country with a city prepared for them. It was not the physical land of Canaan and not the physical city of Jerusalem. It was not an earthly kingdom.
III. We receive (12:28). [paralambano—present active—“we are receiving”]A. The writer here returns to a similar contrast as what he began with in chap. 1.
1. He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets; In these last days He has spoken to us in His Son.
2. You have not come to Sinai; You have come to Zion (12:18-24).
3. You have not come to a shakable kingdom; You have come to a kingdom which cannot be shaken.
4. Cf. They died in faith not having received, but we are receiving what they were looking forward to.
B. What we are experiencing is much greater than what the fathers experienced.
C. To what have we come (12:22-24)?
1. To Mount Zion.
2. The city of the living God. The city that Abraham was looking for (11:16).
3. The heavenly Jerusalem—NOT the earthly Jerusalem.
4. To myriads of angels.
5. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn ones enrolled in heaven.
6. To God.
7. To the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
8. To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.
9. To the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
D. So here is the summary picture—GOD SPOKE; THEY DIED IN FAITH; WE RECEIVE WHAT THEY LOOKED FORWARD TO.
Conclusion:
1. “Let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28b-29). 2. Gratitude, service, reverence, and awe—four key words directing our course in light of the “big picture.” 3. It is easy for us to be distracted by things in this life. 4. Friend who has cancer. Chemo-therapy. Operation. Colostomy. Pain medications. Easy to despair. “I have to keep reminding myself of the “big picture.””
