HEBREWS – PART ONE – Lesson 2
“Hearing God: A Matter of Life and Death”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
This is your second week in Hebrews, and if you are like me, precious one, you probably are a little bit overwhelmed, trying to put that book together, trying to decide on chapter titles when it doesn’t even seem that they made the chapter divisions where they ought to be. I agree with you, they didn’t make them where they ought to be. There are not inspired. The Bible is inspired, but the chapter divisions are not. But I just want you to know that I don’t want you to be overwhelmed at all, because I can tell you this, on the authority of God’s word, and on the fact that God has led me to write this course at this time, I am convinced without a shadow of a doubt that Hebrews is one of the most significant books in the New Testament, and one of the most needed books for the church of Jesus Christ today. I can promise you that God is going to bless you. (If He doesn’t, I will give your money back. You have a money-back guarantee.)
I want to take you to Hebrews, and I want to give you a slight overview. I want to look at certain things in Hebrews, and then, the Lord willing and Kay handling her time properly, I want to take you to a parable that will parallel what God is saying to us in Hebrews. This parable will give you a background for appreciating this book more and more as you dig into it.
Hebrews is a book of “pressing on to maturity.” It is a book of endurance; it is a book of going outside the camp (as the last chapter of Hebrews says) and bearing His reproach. The thing that is so neat about Hebrews is that it tells us that we can do this by considering Jesus. If you would go to Hebrews 3:1, you see an exhortation. (1) “Therefore, holy brethren, [speaking to you and to me who know Jesus Christ] partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” [You have confessed Him; you have professed Him. You say that you believe in Him. Now consider Him.] It is a book that tells you how you can press on to maturity, how you can endure, how you can go outside the camp for now, bearing His reproach by considering Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, and by walking in faith.]
What is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:7), and hearing by the word of God. When you open up Hebrews, the first thing that God tells us is this: God has spoken in His Son, and He wants us to hear Him. Another way to look at it is this: Hebrews is a book that shows you that you can make it, no matter what. In a day when so many are falling, we need to know how we can make it. He shows us that we can make it because we (you and I) have access to God. We have access to the very throne of God. We can come boldly within the veil to the very throne of God, and there is Christ, our High Priest, a priest who abides forever (as Hebrews 7:24 says), a priest who is able to save forever those who draw near to Him, because He ever lives to make intercession for us. In other words, you don’t need to fall; you don’t need to drift away. You don’t need to stay an infant; you can go on, you can make it, you can endure, no matter what comes your way, because you and I have a high priest. That high priest is within the veil, and God wants (and you are going to see it as we go on) us to live within the veil. God wants us to live within the Holy of Holies. When we get to Hebrews, Part Two, this will really come home to us. He is showing us in Hebrews two things: that Jesus is available, (he is accessible), and He is adequate. You have access to Jesus, who is the Son of God, who is the express image of God, and He is adequate for any situation of life.
You found the verse (I assume that you found the verse) in Hebrews 13 (aren’t you glad I told what chapter it was in). Someone said, “Oh, I am so glad that you told me that.” Go to Hebrews 13:22, the verse that explains what Hebrews is. “But I urge you, brethren,” [When he says “brethren”, he is talking to believers. We will see that in just a few minutes.] “bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.” [The author’s briefness is like my briefness. It is long.] This is a word of exhortation. It is a word that comes alongside you, and says, “You can make it, and this is how you can make it.”
The question is: To whom was Hebrews written? I believe that the way you look at the recipients of Hebrews will determine the way you interpret this book. We want to take a look at the recipients of Hebrews. To whom is he speaking in the book of Hebrews? You may disagree with me, and that is fine. (Other disagree also.) You will find scholars divided on this. Yet, I believe that when you do your homework, when you plunge (not into commentaries) into the book itself, when you study it inductively, when you let the author of Hebrews (and we don’t know who it is really, and we are not going into all that debate. They debate and debate and debate for pages, and they still don’t know who it is, because he didn’t tell us.) interpret himself. You cannot add to what the author is saying. As we go through, we see in Hebrews 3:1 the first direct address to the recipients of this letter. We have already looked at it, but you might want to make a list of the “Recipients of Hebrews”, and make a list of all the Scriptures that we are going to look at.
The first one is Hebrews 3:1. “Therefore, holy brethren,” [“Holy” means set apart, sanctified. Another word would be “faith”. They all come from the same basic root. Some people think the author of Hebrews is writing to Jews, and he is a Jew, and he is calling them “brethren” because they are of the same nationality. But, I think this verse stops that concept. (1) “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus,” [Not every Jew believes in Jesus; not every Jew acknowledged who Jesus was. Blindness in part had happened to Israel.] “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” [You have confessed Jesus Christ. So in this first direct address, I think we can see that he is speaking to believers.]
In Hebrews 6:9 there is another direct address. (9) “But, beloved,” [Now you know where I get my “beloved” from, don’t you? It tickles me. They feel the same way I feel about you. Someone said, “Kay, don’t put “beloved” in. Some of the men don’t like it.” I sat some of the men down, and I said, “Does that “beloved” offend you?” They said, “No. We like it.” I can’t write to you without calling you “beloved”. I can’t just write, “Dear Friend,” and I can’t write, “Hey, you.” It is “Beloved.” You are beloved. Can you imagine what it would be to grasp the fact that you are beloved to God? What security that would be! He says, “Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you,” [You, who? You to whom he is writing.] “and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.] “Though we are speaking in this way” is that horrible passage to interpret in Hebrews 6. Did you stumble over the first part of Hebrews 6, just wondering what it meant? I am so glad. You are going to have to Hebrews, Part Two to find out. So, he talks to them as believers.
Go to Hebrews 13:22-23, and watch him use the term “brethren” again. (22) “But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. (23) Take notice that our brother Timothy” [Timothy was a Jew and a Gentile combined. He had a Gentile father and a Jewish mother.] “has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I shall see you.” [He is calling Timothy their brother. Here you see the family of God.]
All the way throughout the book you find the editorial “we”. (Put this down in your list. As you look at the recipients of Hebrews, you see him referring to the editorial “we” or “us”. Go to Hebrews 2:1. “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” [He is identifying himself with his hearers. In other words, the warning that he has given in 2:1, he is identifying with. So we see and editorial “we” in v. 3.] (3) “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”
Then drop down to Hebrews 4:14. It says, “Since then 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 a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses…” (16) “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace…” [You and I are to draw near to the throne of grace. Who can come to the throne of grace? Jesus said, “I am the way; I am the truth; I am the life, and no one comes to the Father but by Me.” So if I am allowed to draw near to the throne of grace, then I am allowed to draw near because Jesus is the way, and because Jesus is my access to God. I Tim. 2:5 says, “There is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus.”
All of this implies that these are believers. There are other Scriptures that we could look at, but let’s just grab one more, Hebrews 10:23. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;” [I think, honestly, that as you go through the book, and you allow the book to speak for itself, and you do not come before Hebrews with any preconceived idea, that you will see that Hebrews has no address in it to anyone but Christians. You say, “But if he is saying that to Christians, what do I do with Hebrews, Chapter 6 and Chapter 10, those two warning passages that seem like a Christian can lose their salvation? What am I going to do with those? Well, you will find out when we get through Hebrews 2. But let the book speak for itself, because I believe that there is a clear explanation of it, and I believe that it will all fall into place. Rather than trying to say that those verses couldn’t possibly belong to a Christian, let’s just take the fact that the book of Hebrews constantly addresses people who he says really and truly belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s take it from there, and see what happens as we go along.]
Let’s look at some things we can learn about the recipients of this letter. What did we learn about the recipients of the letter? I want you to go to Hebrews 2. We are just going to run through the book a whole lot, and I think the blessing will come at the end, but just hang in there with me. I know you are going over this in class, yet one hour discussion is not enough time to cover everything you have learned in your homework. Let me strengthen it. As you listen to what we are learning about the recipients, see if you can identify in any single way at all.
#1. They were in danger of drifting away from God’s word. You see this in 2:1-3, where we have already been. There is a warning there, and the warning is against drifting away. You are going to appreciate this word “drifting” when you do your study on Hebrews 2, so I am not going to deal with it now. (1) “For this reason…” [For what reason? For the fact that God has spoken in His Son.] Look at Hebrews 1:1. “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, (2) in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” Now jump from there to Hebrews 2:1. “For this reason…” [Because God has finally spoken to us in His Son, because God has given us the ultimate revelation, God has shut His mouth; He has no more to say. He has said it all in His Son.] “we must pay much closed attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” [He is speaking to people that he considers believers, and he is giving them a warning about drifting away from the word of God. It is a warning about neglecting so great a salvation.] (3) “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,” [God has spoken. He has spoken through the Lord; then He has spoken through those that heard the Lord. Then they have spoken to us. Then he says, “You need to listen.]
The second thing you learn about the recipients as you look at the book is this: #2. There is apossible heart of unbelief. Hebrews 3:12 says, “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.” [He is talking to them about the possibility of an evil, unbelieving heart. Can a Christian have that? That is good question. He is talking to people that he is convinced belong to Jesus Christ, and yet, as we go through the Scriptures, everyone that professes Christ does not necessarily possess Him. He is talking to them as believers, but he is warning them about this possible heart of unbelief, and (4:1) coming short of His rest. (1) “Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest…” [You say, “What is this rest? Well, we are going to study that. I am just awakening all sorts of questions, aren’t I?] “any one of you should seem to have come short of it.” [Here is another warning.]
The third thing that you know about these people is that: #3. They ought to be teachers, but theyneed teaching. Look at Hebrews 6:1, but first I want to pick up 5:12. (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.” [It’s time for you to be teaching, but you can’t be teaching because you can’t take solid food.] Hebrews 6:1, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity.” [So we know that they need to go on to maturity. They ought to be teachers, but they need teaching. They need to go on to maturity.]
The fourth thing you need to see is that he is persuaded. #4. He is talking to these people as if theyare believers. He addresses them as believers. We see this in 6:9, “But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation.” I want to show it to you also in Hebrews 10:23 and 39. Some of this is redundant, but I want you to see it. (23) “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;” Then drop down to v. 39. (39) “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” [So he is treating them as if they are saved. He is saying, “This is what I believe about you.]
#5. These people have worked and shown their love toward His name in ministering to the saints, in the past and in the present. These are people that care about others. Look at 6:10. “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.” [These are people that care about others. They are ministering to the saints.]
The sixth thing that you see is this: #6. These were people that are illuminated, that had insight. You see this in 10:32. They had endured a great fight of affliction. (32) “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened,” [In other words, after coming to the knowledge of the truth about Jesus Christ.] “you endured a great conflict of sufferings,” [So they have endured sufferings for the gospel of Jesus Christ.] (33) “partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations,” [Because of their faith they were made a public spectacle. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever been made a public spectacle because of your faith? Have you ever had people razz you?]
There was a neat article in Sunday’s paper. (I don’t know if you saw it or not.) It was about the son of one of our staff members who plays football for McCauleySchool. In that article, he openly confessed that his one desire was to be pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet, he said in the article, this was causing him conflict with some of the students in that school. They didn’t like his stand. Therefore, they were coming against him. When they come against you, then you are made a public spectacle. This is what was happening then; it is what is happening today.
The next thing you see in this passage is that they were the companions of those who were treatedimproperly. (10:33) “and partly by becoming sharers (or companions) of those who were so treated.” [In other words, if they were not being made a public spectacle, when they saw others being made a public spectacle they walked over to their side, and they stood with them. They didn’t run away, but they came along and stood by their side. I want to ask you a question. When others are “getting it” for the gospel of Jesus Christ, what do you do? Where do you go? Do you run to their aid? Do you run to their side? Or do you run away? These people stood.]