The Great High Priest and learning to lead: Hebrews chapter 5

To watch the YouTube, click on his link https://youtu.be/iV_eL7smEEc

“Listen up: this is better” -- A study on the Bible book of Hebrews

A 13-week series given in 2020

Given 28 August 2020

bob@jewsforjesus.org.au

 

Lesson Five: The Great High Priest and learning to lead

 

Shalom to each of you here on the Zoom call and those who will watch this class lecture on YouTube later. I hope you will feel welcome and when this section ends in about 20 minutes, that you will be a participant in the rest of the questions and discussion time. This letter to messianic Jews was written before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.  Today we study chapter 5, and if you haven’t yet read it, please, those of you on YouTube, pause the playback, read the chapter, and then press play again to re-join us. Thanks.

Welcome back.

The author is going to present to us another challenge, but not a warning. It’s almost a bit of calm hostility about the disappointment the author feels about these Jewish believers not taking the lead as they should. There is not a single ‘therefore’ in this chapter neither is there a single warning. It’s a brief comment on Yeshua and on us who follow him. 

Remember our two major themes in this book: Listen up and This is better. Over the last couple of chapters the author has highlighted our need to listen, to hear and to hear just now using the 95^th Psalm’s word ‘TODAY.’ Now we move again to something much better. Yeshua is better indeed, better than Aaron. Wow, that’s chutzpah. 1500 years after Aaron died someone is saying there is another who is way better than this iconic figure in Jewish history.

Imagine someone rocking up in today’s world and knocking or diminishing the clout, the effectiveness, the efficacy, the importance of an icon. Say you are in India and you say that the new guy is way better than Gandhi. Or you are in Tibet and start a movement announcing the new hero is significant. OK, some will listen to you. But then you say the new hero is better than the Dalai Lama. Or you are in Thailand and you insist that a new man could have the same importance as #5 or #9 (those are historic kings). You aren’t just starting a counter-movement; you are diminishing the #1 and therefore you are making yourself to be a man of fake news, a person who doesn’t value your own life. Some would take your diminishing as an insult of the hero and thus you are treasonous or at least to be held in low repute. 

When Yeshua said to the crowd in John 8, “Before Abraham was, I am” he was bordering on this activity. He took a central and preeminent Jewish character and basically said, ‘You think Abraham was significant? Buckle your seatbelts… I am more preeminent. I was there before him.” To say you were existing before another is in those days to say you were of a higher level of significance. Similarly when Yeshua taught that your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness (John 6), but I’m the true bread that came down from heaven. (6.41) The argument by many on that day was about his identity. “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” They were ready to dispute his claim, his saying that he was around previously, in fact, that he existed at that time, in other words, they disputed his claim to preeminence. 

1.     A better priesthood

So here in the 5^th chapter of Hebrews, the author sets a contrast between Yeshua and Aaron, the Jewish people’s original and therefore preeminent high priest. George Washington is the greatest US president arguably because he set the bar. Napoleon, greatest in the French revolution and therefore the ongoing highest-ranking leader since then. When a Jew, to this day, mentions the priesthood from Scriptures, the priesthood ordained by God, there is no doubt that the greatest was Aaron. His two elder sons, Nadav and Avihu, died by bringing a strange offering to God; his third son El’azar took over when Aaron died. But no one since that time had as much clout, though to be sure, others tried, even so, the Aaron of history was the Aaron of preeminence.

When the author kicks off today’s lesson with a sense of kindness and ease about priests, the point person of the discussion is Aaron. And just as we saw in chapter 3 where the similarities were first introduced between Moses and Yeshua, so here, similarities between Aaron and Yeshua. Look at verses 1 and 2.

 “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; ² he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided since he himself also is beset with weakness;”

He is selected ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, “from among men,” and is appointed ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων, “on behalf of men,” to represent them before God. The author is making the point that God chose the priesthood, both in Aaron’s day and in the choosing of Yeshua. Then we see, due to his humanity, the priests can be kind and gentle with those who are acting wrongly in the community of Israel. Why? Because he knows his own weaknesses. He knows he has feet of clay and he diminishes the demands of the Lord, negotiating if you will, and weakening God to people. 

The priest even has to offer sacrifices for himself because of his own sins. The contrast with what already has been said is clear. We read at the end of chapter 4 about the great High Priest who can sympathize with us in our weakness, who was tempted in every way like as we are, but who never sinned. Yeshua can help in every circumstance. The best another priest can offer, due to his own weakness, is to downplay the demands of the Sovereign God. But more on that contrast in due course.

So the point here at the beginning is that both Yeshua and Aaron were chosen by God to serve the people. 

Verse 3: “and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.”

Two comments from verse 3.

1)             The role of the priest was huge in ancient Israel, diminished in modern days, certainly since the destruction of the Temple. We have to understand how Judaism has changed so radically since that time.

No longer do priests have any major role; their role has been taken over by the rabbis and teachers, by the spiritual guides in synagogues rather than by those who brought offerings for sin in Temple days. I highlight that here because when you try to share what you believe with Jewish people in 2020, and speak about sin, and blood atonement, you will be met with initial rejection. Why? Because modern Jews, outside this month and next month, will have little consideration of sin and the need for atonement. We don’t have sacrifices for sin, and thus sin takes a back seat. Sin is not an issue. Why? Because the Temple and the blood are both gone. We have a harder hill to climb in witness than the author of Hebrews did in the day.

2)             Aaron had to offer up animals for sacrifices; Yeshua offered himself as the eternal sacrifice. 

Verse 4:

⁴ And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

Again the author is highlighting the choice of the priest was God’s choice.

Verse 5: “So also Messiah did not glorify Himself”

The similarity is highlighted. In the same way that Aaron did not self-select, neither did Yeshua, and as a result, did not bring glory to himself. 

Then the author quotes two Psalms. First Psalm 2, then Psalm 110.

I like what William Lane says of the quote in verse 5, from Psalm 2. 

“The writer correctly interprets Ps 2:7 as a declaration of appointment, not of parentage.” The author is not saying anything in favor of or against procreation and the birth of Yeshua. The intention is to highlight the choice of the Son over the choice of the priesthood of Aaron. And the point being—betterness!

Again from Lane, 

“No other Christian writer of this period drew attention to Ps 110:4, but in Hebrews there are more references to Ps110:4 than to any other biblical text. In addition to three direct quotations of the passage (5:6; 7:17, 21), there are eight allusions to it in chaps. 5, 6, and 7, and each of the allusions is distinctive in form and function (see especially Hay, “Chart 4: Early Christian Interpretation of Psalm 110:4,” in Glory, 46–47). The primary reason for the emphasis on Ps 110:4 in Hebrews is that it supplied a scriptural basis for the writer’s priestly christology.” 

Verse 8: 

“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

Pondering obedience, which is crucial to understanding the point of the author, I like how she links suffering with obedience. Remember a steady theme in the book is the reluctance of Messianic Jews to continue to identify with Yeshua and Yeshua’s people. The author issues six warnings. And the reality is that when the Jewish community issues rejection orders, it’s painful; it’s suffering. There’s nothing you can do to dismiss it. What we are needing to do in those moments is to turn and trust our Messiah, who gets it. He also was sent ‘outside the camp’ and was rejected. He learned to obey (which does not mean he previously disobeyed and got a 2^nd chance) by suffering. We will learn the same lesson when we stand together as Messianic Jews no matter the cost of our families and friends who might reject us.

[[Story in USA and then a story in Singapore-- only available on the YouTube video]]

Verse 10: We will speak more about Melchizedek at length in a couple weeks, but for now, just know that the reason the author brings in Melchizedek is to highlight the priesthood of Yeshua is better than the priesthood of Aaron. More later, trust me.

2.     Messianic Jews ought to be teachers

Verse 11 introduces the final section today. That is, the role that disciples should have in carrying on this message. The author is aching for disciples to teach others, to carry this message to other messianic Jews and even to the Gentiles for Jesus movement. We believers are chided for becoming ‘dull of hearing.’ Again, reminding us on the flip side, to ‘listen up.’ And when we listen, we will become teachers. 

Verse 11ff: “since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

It’s not to be lost on you, here on Zoom, or on YouTube, that when you have learned, and have your senses trained to discern good and evil. When you have learned the elementary principles (about which we will speak again next week), then it’s time to be sharing what you know with others. There are people, real people out there, who need to hear what you have to say. You ought to be teaching them!

Discipleship is not an education system only. It’s not how much you have learned and what preachers you like to listen to or how many notebooks you have filled up in seminars and Bible conferences. It’s about personal growth, which, to be sure, includes learning, and then putting that all into practice. 

Dear friends on Zoom, or on YouTube, if you don’t yet know Messiah Yeshua, please I appeal to you today, surrender your life to him. Admit your need of him. Trust him who came from heaven to earth to show the way. And to set you free. That’s faith. That’s the opposite of unbelief and do it today (4.7) the author says. Even now.

If you want to talk more about that, start with prayer. Talk to the Almighty. He loves to listen to your faintest whisper. And if you want to ask me a question, just use the email here on the screen. I’ll give it a go and try to answer you.

Until next week, when we will meet again to share about chapter 6 and more about those elementary and basic doctrines, and the idea of eternal security especially, and of course more on this Great High Priest-- Until then,             

 Shabbat shalom.

 

 

Actual text:

Heb. 5:1   For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; ² he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; ³ and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. ⁴ And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

 

Heb. 5:5    So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON,  TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”;

⁶  just as He says also in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER  ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”

⁷ In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. ⁸ Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, ¹⁰ being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

 

Heb. 5:11   Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Bibliography

 

Ladd, George E., A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1974. (Pages 571 – 587)

Lane, William L, Word Biblical Commentary Series, Hebrews.

Vine, W.E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Revell, Old Tappan, NJ, 1966.

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Confident. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs,1982.

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D-Groups for this week

1)             Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse

2)             Monday 10 am Sydney time, led by Rebekah Bronn

3)             Thursday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White

(Contact our office for zoom details)

Hebrews chapter 4: Strive to enter rest (a conundrum)

 Given 21 August 2020

bob@jewsforjesus.org.au

To watch this talk given live in Sydney, click here.  

Lesson Four: Rest in the Lord: A call to unity of faith

 

I’d like to welcome each of you today as we study and learn together again from the letter to messianic Jews written before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.  Today we study chapter 4, and if you haven’t yet read it, please, those of you on YouTube, pause the playback, read the chapter, and then press play again to re-join us. Thanks.

Welcome back.

The author is going to spend this chapter asking, appealing to the believers to whom he’s writing, to join together in a series of ‘let us’ charges. It’s almost as if the author is a national speaker at a political convention, saying “We can change” or “Let’s press on” or “Come on, everybody, it’s time for something again!” Not quite a cheerleader, but an enthusiastic supporter of everyone to do the right thing. And this enthusiasm is based on two things: 1) the pastoral love the author has for the believers and 2) the promises of the Lord which are yet unfulfilled. We see the word “promise” used 18 times in this letter, and in today’s section, we see it used for the first time. If God promised something, and we don’t yet have it, the author says, “Come on, mate, let’s work to get it. Look around you. Grab onto it. It’s YOURS!”

That hortatory cry is an appeal and one which we want to be careful to make real. We also want to be those who hear that, who listen to what is said, and respond in the faith God desires. Let’s open today’s text and see what the Lord has to say to us as 21^st Century people. 

If you are a lawyer or a logician, you will see four ‘therefore’s’ in today’s chapter (4.1, .6, .11, .16), and feel very comfortable. It’s obviously a series of points and follow on points so that we can get where the author wants us to go—which is to the idea of REST.

Let’s start with verse one.

1.              Warning #3: Fear lest we fall short of God’s rest

Let us fear. That’s not a usual opening in conversation in modern days. We want fear to subside. Our government is assuring us daily about COVID and fearlessness, that is, that if we all do the right thing, and comply with restrictions, then the virus will go away. We will be safe. You don’t usually hear leaders open their press conference with “Let us fear.” But that’s exactly how today’s episode begins. Why? It’s a warning about not entering into rest. 

God wants us to know him personally and find a sense of peace and assurance in his presence. That’s titled “rest” in these chapters.

There is a standard preposition ‘kata’ which is used throughout koine, that is, ancient Greek, and certainly with frequency in Hebrews. Kata means ‘down’ usually, like thrown down or brought down or it can be a reference to motion or related to a place or related to time or a succession of things following one another. It’s a multi-use preposition to be sure. And it’s in the word for ‘rest’ in today’s reading and ‘veil’ later in the letter which caught my eye.

The word katapausis translates the Hebrew menucha hjwnm often in the LXX. I want you to notice the direction implied in the Greek that doesn’t show up in the Hebrew. The word katapausis means the rest, the state of being blessed, the place where God dwells and the promise that this blessedness is available to humanity. Last week the author quoted Psalm 95, saying ‘today if you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as you did in the Wilderness,” and then calls us to enter God’s rest. This rest is directionally from above and shared with us down here in a ‘putting to rest’ from heaven to us. That tells me this idea is directionally ‘heaven to earth’ and is not earth to heaven. How significant is that to religionists in these days or any day! Paul wrote to Titus saying, it’s “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he (God) saves us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” (3.5-6) God gave us salvation and life and we didn’t earn it. We still cannot earn it.

So, the ‘rest’ is a promise. It was a promise to Joshua and to Moses and to the wilderness people. When King David wrote about this rest 500 years after Moses and the Exodus people died, this rest was still available. Listen to how the author addresses this still remaining. 

Verses 2-3: They heard the word, but it did not profit them, (why?) because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

This could be confusing. Didn’t the Jewish people enter Canaan and thus the rest promised in the Exodus? No, says the author. If the rest remained in King David’s day, then Joshua had not supplied it. Joshua even reminded our people (1.13) to go in and take the land and thus receive rest. 

Moses had heard the word of the promise (Exodus 33.14, Deut. 3.20, 5.33, 12.10) and passed that word on to the Jewish people, but we didn’t get it then. We didn’t enter into it in Joshua’s day. Nor in King David’s day.

According to William Lane “Jewish teachers of the early second century debated, on the basis of Numbers 14:35 and Psalm 95:11, whether the oath of God excluding the desert fathers from entrance into his rest implied their exclusion from participation in the age to come at the consummation of redemption (Sanh. 13:10 [Zuck. 435]; Sanh 110b [Baraitha]; Sanh 10.29c [Baraitha]; AbotRNat 36; cf Hofius, Katapausis, 44–47, 52).”

2.     Warning #4: Let us strive to enter rest

Listen, the author says again and again… ‘let us take care” (3.12), “let us fear” (4.1), “let us labour to enter that rest.” (4.9) There’s that borderline cheerleader telling us to work together. Let us fear. Let us labour. 

WAIT a minute… labour to enter rest? How is that even possible? Didn’t I already explain that the rest is something which is given top down? How can we possibly labour in the sense of earning this rest? The NASB translates the word ‘labour’ to ‘let us be diligent’ and is used throughout the NT to mean endeavour or make haste, even exert oneself. 

Does that confuse you? 

What is the author saying? DON’T LET ANYONE BE LEFT OUT. Work to bring each other along. This is not a private religion. It’s for all Messianic Jews to care for one another and to labour together that no one should be left out.  Note that in verse 11, so that ‘no one will fall’

One more thing on this warning #4 in the book. The Greek for ‘be diligent’ is spoudaswmen gives us the English word "speedy" and tells us to speed on to do something. Don't let anyone delay you. Be diligent and keep going.

The idea of faith and work to rest… Yeshua had already hinted at that in John’s Gospel when asked by the disciples about doing God’s work. Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (6.29)

Belief, or we should say, exercising our faith, that’s the way to perform God’s work in these days.

And the author says that’s how to enter rest. Look at verse 1. Don’t come short of it. Verse 2: They didn’t enter rest due to unbelief. Verse 3: We who believe have entered that rest. 

3.     The 2^nd therefore (verse 6): An eternal Shabbat

The Wilderness folks died out without entering the rest of the Lord due to their disobedience. That’s why in verse 9 we see ‘there remains a Sabbath rest for God’s people.” This is not the same Greek word for rest. It’s the word ‘Sabbaton’, almost a transliteration of the Hebrew and now into English. Shabbat matters to us as Jews throughout our history, and I imagine most of you who are Jews on this zoom call or who watch this YouTube will take tonight being Erev Shabbat off and tomorrow will rest in one way or another. The author is saying something MORE than that weekly Sabbath.

The author is describing heaven’s rest, from all our earthly troubles. Eternal rest it might be said. There is a long-ranged rest in view. This is the inheritance. This is the fulfilled promise. And how do we enter that rest? 

The Word of God (verse 12) described this and in a way it’s a nickname for Yeshua himself! (Revelation 19.13) It’s more than the Bible, for sure, it’s the word applied to our lives. That word is able to divide body, soul and spirit and judge us. That certainly sounds like a person—like Yeshua!

Now those of us who are living 2,000 years since this book was written have the word of God, the Bible, and we put our faith in the Messiah who is evidenced there again and again. His work on Calvary, in dying for humanity and in rising from the dead to enact our redemption, is what I trust. My rest if not based on my accomplishments in religion. It’s top/down now. It’s what God did that makes me able to rest. IF I WILL TRUST HIM. And, my friends, I do even now. 

Who is this one whom I trust? Yes, he’s the word (v. 12) and by being laid bare to his eyes, Jewish believers have to realize who is #1.

That’s a scary phrase, “laid bare.” Like you are exposed on a doctor’s surgical table. You are there and only the doctor can slice and cause the surgery to go well. The doctor can cause healing and health and restoration, by that ‘laid bare’ reality.

4.     The challenge is to whom will we yield our lives? (The 3^rd therefore)

Sometimes I have been surrounded by hostile Jewish crowds. I remember a scene at Brooklyn’s Long Island University 35 years ago when I was being hit again and again by an angry Jewish man. I kept turning away from him and loudly proclaiming “This man is mad that Jesus wants you to know the love of God. This man wants to prevent you from knowing the Living God.” And other quick statements of God’s love. A crowd grew and I remember eventually the young man abandoned his quest to prevent my sharing the Lord there at that uni.

Another time I was surrounded by several young Jewish students here in Sydney at Macquarie University. They actually took one of my leaflets I was distributing and set it on fire and pointed it in my face. A crowd quickly gathered and within moments a security guard came up and took me away. He directed me to abandon my post in front of the library. Initially I was not happy that the guard was moving me rather than those hostile young folks. But he told me that he did it for my safety, taking me into the library and away from the hostility.

I tell you those two episodes, and I could tell you many more, that there are times when I was outed by Jewish people who were troubled by my existence, by my statement that I was a Jew who believed in Jesus. 

I tell you these stories to let you know that I’ve been ‘laid bare’ (verse 13) before Messiah and thus, no matter what others do to me, they are not the ones ‘with whom we have to do.” (verse 13)

My commitment is not to a religion. I’m not committed to Judaism or to Christianity. Nor is it to this ‘ism’ or that one. My commitment is to the One who is the Word of God. He is my life and he has made me alive in Him. 

And how do we handle that exposure, being laid bare? How do we handle the disdain of the crowd? How do we respond when troubled? Where is the therefore now? We can hold fast our confession, by turning to our GREAT HIGH PRIEST (v. 14) who is not still on earth, but who has “passed through the heavens.” He can “sympathize with our weaknesses” (v. 15). How? He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (v 15)

5.     Draw near: The 4^th therefore

The final ‘therefore’ finishes up the chapter. Given our desire to enter that rest and given the call of God for us to believe, and given the great high priest, we can DRAW NEAR with confidence. What hope! What assurance! What a great God we have. When do we need him? “In time of need.” (v. 16) How do we appropriate what we need? We draw near. We don’t run away. (We often will say things like, “Oh, I did so badly yesterday.” Or “I didn’t keep God’s law” or “I failed him.”) You don’t turn away from the one who can help you; you turn towards him.  You draw near to the throne of grace; (Not to the throne of judgment); we receive mercy and find grace to help. Hallelujah! It’s top down! It’s a gift. We receive our gifts from the Gifted One. Our Righteous Messiah showers his love on us, and we rejoice in the presence of the One who gives us Rest and help.

And what is the access point? How do we receive this? By faith! By taking God at his word. (Not faith in ourselves or our religion, but faith in HIM!) Faith in the Living Word, Yeshua.  

As a result, we can hold on. 

As a result, we can help each other to hold on. Be diligent. Strive. Speed down; work it out. Together! Don’t let anyone fail. Don’t let anyone fall behind. Bring everyone along. 

Dear friends on Zoom, or on YouTube, if you don’t yet know Messiah Yeshua, please I appeal to you today, surrender your life to him. Admit your need of him. Trust him who came from heaven to earth to show the way. And to set you free. That’s faith. That’s the opposite of unbelief, and do it today (4.7) the author says. Even now.

If you want to talk more about that, start with prayer. Talk to the Almighty. He loves to listen to your faintest whisper. And if you want to ask me a question, just use the email here on the screen. I’ll give it a go to try to answer you.

Until next week, when we will meet again to share about chapter 5 and more about this Great High Priest-- Until then,             

 Shabbat shalom.

 

 

Actual text:

Heb. 4:1   Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. ² For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word ¹they heard did not profit them, because ²it was not united by faith in those who heard. ³  For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, 

            “AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, 

            THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” 

            although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴ For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; ⁵ and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” ⁶ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷  He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying ¹through David after so long a time just as has been said before, 

            “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, 

            DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. ⁹ So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. ¹¹ Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

 

Heb. 4:14   Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have ^aa high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

Bibliography

 

Ladd, George E., A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1974. (Pages 571 – 587)

 

Lane, William L, Word Biblical Commentary Series, Hebrews.

 

Vine, W.E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Revell, Old Tappan, NJ, 1966.

 

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Confident. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs,1982.

 

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D-Groups for this week

1)              Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse

2)              Monday 10 am Sydney time, led by Rebekah Bronn

3)              Thursday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White

(Contact our office for zoom details)