Bible Study

It's just beginning to rain a little bit here in Cincinnati, so it hasn't detoured our people from coming out here to the home office. So welcome to all of you here in the room. Welcome to all of you watching on the web. Good to have you with us. We're going to be continuing our study in the book of Hebrews tonight. And so Mr. McNeely, Darris McNeely, and myself, Steve Myers, will be conducting a Bible study tonight. Darris is going to be taking the first part of the Bible study, and I'll be taking the second, unless there are vital things that need to be added, then I'll jump in when appropriately necessary. But anyway, I'd like to welcome you all. And what we're planning for tonight, we're going to do it a classroom style, so we'll probably be getting up a little bit, walking around, writing some things on the board. And if you have a question or comment here in the room, just go ahead and raise your hand. We'll try to deal with whatever might come up. We're planning for the study to just last about an hour, is what we're planning for. So you can plan ahead just a little bit, so that's what our goals for this evening are. And if we cover everything we think we might, we might get through Chapter 4, Chapter 5. So we'll see how that goes from here. Okay. So, should I go ahead and ask a blessing? Let's go ahead and ask a blessing on our Bible study tonight, so let's bow our heads, and we'll ask God's blessing. Great loving Heavenly Father, God Almighty, we thank you so much for the opportunity to come together and worship you and praise you and dig into your word a little bit. Thank you so much for giving us your plan and your way, and especially the opportunity to understand what you have in mind for all of us. So we thank you, especially for the book of Hebrews tonight. We ask that you'd inspire the things that are spoken and certainly inspire our hearing, God, that we can drink in your word and really grasp an even deeper understanding of the things that you have in mind for us. So we thank you for this. We ask your blessing on your people everywhere, and we pray especially for your guidance upon the study tonight. And we ask and pray all of this in and by and through the authority of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. All right. Welcome to our Wednesday night Bible study, and welcome to all of you that are joining us online tonight. This is chapter 4 of the book of Hebrews. This will be my first time to actually be joining you with this since the last Bible study, the first few chapters, three chapters of Hebrews has already been covered. The fourth chapter of Hebrews deals with a very interesting subject near and dear to all of us as we study God's word and the Scripture, and that is the subject of the Sabbath, at least the first part of chapter 4. As it talks about the Sabbath, the latter part of chapter 4 will talk about the role of Jesus Christ as our High Priest, a very important matter as well. And chapter 4 of Hebrews is one of those chapters where it talks about the Sabbath that really does not only affirm the existence, the validity, the imperative of observing God's Holy Sabbath today, but also it opens a deeper understanding into how we observe that Sabbath day and the real purpose for it.

As something that is far beyond just a legalistic, physical ritual, it opens up the spiritual dimension of the Sabbath in a very rich way when we truly do understand what the chapter is talking about here. Of course, there are many other sections of the New Testament that refer to the practice of the Sabbath, beginning from the Bible when it comes to God's law, but this opens up a unique area of understanding for us. I think when we add that to what you already have from the rest of the Bible, it is very significant. So let's go ahead and start with chapter 4, and let's begin in verse 1, where it says, "'Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear, lest any of you seem to come short of it.'" So here already in chapter 4, we're beginning to talk about the matter of a promise. I'll have to probably be very careful with the real estate that I've got up here tonight, because Mr. Myers wants probably about a good half of it, but the way he writes, he may need more than half of it. So I need to be very, very careful at least. I like to write all over it as well as students at ABC will know.

But there is an erasure, that's true. First of all, let's look at this word of promise. The Bible is full of many promises. And that is the key thought that the writer of Hebrews, Paul, begins to work through here, in that there is the promise of entering his rest. Now, earlier in chapter 3, that promise has already been referred to again, the idea of a rest in verse 18 of chapter 3, really is the introduction to the thought that those who would not enter into his rest because they did not obey. So the idea of a rest and a relationship with God that is typified in this part of the book by the Sabbath has already been introduced prior to this. And it is speaking in terms of the Israelites. One of the key things to remember about Hebrews is that it is being written primarily to an audience that understands the temple, the priesthood, a Jewish audience, one that is now under the New Covenant. And understanding all of that which was before in the light of the death of Jesus Christ, his resurrection, and the New Covenant, and the church experience, and how all of that fits together, what was the meaning of the old, what is the meaning of the new. That's carried throughout the book of Hebrews. And there's also a very strong theme in Hebrews of enduring and being faithful. And that's where this promise comes in, that there is a promise of enduring because of that promise. The promises of God which are a multitude of different promises. But in this case, there is introduced the concept of fear, which is really talking about respect or awe. Sometimes we run across the word fear in the Bible and the fear of God, to fear the Lord, to keep His commandments being the whole duty of man and other statements in that matter. What we're really talking about is an awe and a respect for God. That is what is meant by this concept of fear in an overall sense. And he's getting the point across that let us have enough respect and stand in awe of God and His promise, lest any of us fall short and do not enter into that rest, that relationship with God.

In verse 2, he mentions, So he introduces the idea of the gospel, where it was preached to us as well as to them, us being the present audience of Christians being addressed here, and by extension to those of us today, reading that, the gospel was preached to us, but it was also preached to them, them being Israel, the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, those who also had the promises, those who had the relationship with God through a covenant, the priesthood, the law, the temple, and all of that. That gospel was preached to them.

In fact, one of the things that is important to understand about the gospel is not a question of necessarily which gospel or there's one gospel, there is one message that comes from God. In the United Church of God, we have defined from Scripture our mission statement being to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God unto all nations.

The fullness of the gospel of God is throughout Scripture, but to understand that the Israelites also had an exposure to the gospel is fundamental. Sometimes people think that the gospel begins only in the New Testament, maybe with Mark 1, where Christ came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, Mark 1, verses 14 and 15. But the reality is that the gospel begins way back in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26, where it says, Let us make man in our image. And God begins to unfold the entire prospect of sons and daughters being brought into His family, a man being created in the image of God, and having the opportunity to become a son of God in an air of all things with Jesus Christ. That is where the gospel begins, and in one sense that verse summarizes the entire gospel. And as that was given, and as that was magnified through to Abraham and to Israel, and Israel themselves became a nation, the gospel began to grow and to develop in the various ways that it did. So it was preached to them as well as to us. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. Faith is the spiritual element that is needed in order to act and believe upon God's word and to have confidence in those very promises. That was what was missing. Time and time again, Israel had opportunities to demonstrate a reliance upon God, a confidence in God, but they did not fully experience that faith. And they ultimately went into captivity as a result of that. So that is a very, very important matter to understand and to realize here. Now verse 3 begins to talk about, again, this idea of a rest.

Now this rest is where we begin to get into understanding about the Sabbath and the connection with God, the initial rest that God took was back there in Genesis 2 and verse 2, where He rested on the seventh day from all of His works and created the seventh day after six days of a physical creation. That is the initial rest that is being referred to here, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place in verse 4 of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all of His works. Again, that direct reference which is in there in regard to this. As we really move through these verses here, in verses 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, we're going to be looking and seeing that there's really a reference to three different kinds of rest that are being referred here. This first one here is God's rest on the Sabbath, a Sabbath rest, as explained by the fourth commandment, which was a completion of creation where God Himself rested. And by the very act of resting on that seventh day created the Sabbath and is what is being referred to here in this. Now, if we go back in verse 3, the commentaries will bring this out in some of the better expositions of chapter 3. Also have the idea that it says, where we who have believed do enter that rest as He has said. And the text, the verb here in the Greek, really has a present tense in that we are entering, is a way to understand that. If you really look at the way that this is brought out, we who have believed are entering that rest as He has said. And that is again going to be brought back into the picture here as we move through this particular part of Hebrews, in that there is a present sense of keeping the Sabbath today, a present sense of the rest for God's people who are keeping the Sabbath. And by keeping that Sabbath in a spiritual way, in a spiritual observance, we are beginning to enter into a spiritual relationship with God that the Sabbath gives us that is unique. It is a very sacred space. It is a very interesting observance. One book that I have that talks about the Sabbath and holy time and the holy days as a whole, use the phrase that I've used before, just borrowing it, that to keep the Sabbath, to keep a holy day, is to enter into a temple in time.

A temple in time. A temple is where God dwells. And time is our temporal residence here. We go enter into the Sabbath at sundown on the seventh day every week. And for a 24-hour period, we keep the Sabbath holy, as God has commanded us to do by resting from our own works. And in doing so, we enter into a space that is made by God's presence, which makes it holy.

And it's a profound thought about resting on the Sabbath from our work to begin to allow God to do His work within us. And that's where the writer here, Paul, begins to open the Sabbath up into a whole different dimension from what was truly understood in the Old Testament, never completely understood.

And because they had added so many burdens, the Jews had it by the time of the first century in this period of time, to God's law, including the Sabbath day, in order to keep people from having to break it, it had become a burden. And the idea of resting on the Sabbath to allow God to begin to do His spiritual work was something that was not understood.

This is what's being opened up here in this context. And if more of us, I think, who keep God's Sabbath today would think deeply about this, it would really form a very positive approach to the day and to our observance of the Sabbath, rather than a legalistic one, a purely physical one, where we stop work, we look at the watch, we set aside a 24-hour period of time, when it's over, boom, we're on toward the rest of our lives. And we haven't really stopped to let God begin to do His work.

About 18 years ago, when the Sabbath began to be attacked in the church, we had to defend the faith. One of the concepts that leapt out at me as I was doing a lot of research to, in a sense, establish once again the teaching and to help people to understand that the Sabbath was in effect, was to this concept that we rest on the Sabbath.

We stop our work so that God can begin to do His work within us, and a spiritual work that He is doing. It's not that God's work ends, and it's not even that just by ours ceasing from physical work, there's not something that is ongoing. It's by keeping the Sabbath. It is by doing what God tells us to do on the Sabbath in worship, in fellowship, in physical rest, and in study, and in service, that God is, during that time, doing His work in us through His Holy Spirit, building character, and building us in a spiritual sense.

When we take that approach to the Sabbath, we get off of the legalistic approach, and we begin to get on to more of an open spiritual approach to the day. As we turn our foot away from the Sabbath, as Isaiah 58, verse 13 says, we turn our feet toward God and toward Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. That experience then becomes something that is completely profound. Let's go down to verse 4. He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all of His works.

And again, in that place, it says, they shall not enter My rest. To this point, and in verse 5, a reference is being made to Psalm 95 and verse 11, that talks about the very idea of the Israelites going into the Promised Land. And so you have the second concept of the Sabbath that is brought out here, which is that of the Promised Land. We'll just label it as such. When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, and for 40 years, because of sin, they wandered about in the wilderness, ultimately entering into the Promised Land under Joshua. The Psalm 95 begins to use this, as the Scripture does, to explain the fact that in this, that was a type, again, of a rest that was a promise to Israel.

They were led in that direction. And so the promise of an entry into the Promised Land was made. But some did not enter into that rest because of sin, because of disobedience, because they did not fear. And as it says in verse 1, they came short of the promise that God had given to them. So that's the second concept that is brought out here. So we have Genesis 2.2 and Psalm 95 and verse 11 that are two key Scriptures in this.

Go ahead and put Psalm up here. Psalm 95 and verse 11. As the two key concepts where Paul shows that through Christ, that we share in a whole purpose of creation and redemption, which the Sabbath shows, as God began to work with the Sabbath at the beginning, and through Israel has chosen nation through that particular promise as well. Now in verse 6, we get into another thought. Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, the Israelites.

Again He designates a certain day saying in David, today after such a long time as it has been said, today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart. And that's again taking reference right out of Psalm 95 verses 7 and 8, to not harden your hearts if you hear His voice today. Today for you and I is right now in our life.

Today for those reading this in the first century was their lifetime then. The Israelites in their day had a voice and a message given to them that they did not heed. And so again the admonition is to not fall into a hardening of one's heart. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day.

If Joshua had given them rest, a complete rest, and a fullness of what the Sabbath promised and what the entry into the land of Israel was a type of. If he had given them that, then he would not have afterwards spoken of another day. In other words, what Joshua did was only a type and was not a fulfillment of that ultimate rest that he's going to go on to verse 9 and talk about.

That's where it leads into verse 9 where it says there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. A rest for the people of God. In verse 9 we have the third concept of this rest that we are talking about here, which is the fullness, the future kingdom of God. We brought with Christ and His coming and the establishment of that kingdom, the one thousand year initial reign on this earth, the restoration of all things. All of this points to the Sabbath being a time of rest where God does His spiritual work in man, the promised land.

That whole concept began with the Exodus, leading a nation into establishing a kingdom under God in a land that God had promised, being a type of that, but was not fully recognized and fulfilled as the future will be.

The writer here brings it out in such a beautiful way because the word for rest here in verse 9 is a word that is very important to understand Sabbathismos. It's the only time that it is used in the entire New Testament. The other references to rest here in chapter 4 is a different word, catapazim, and does not have the same force of a Sabbath rest that Sabbathismos has.

It's the only time in the entire New Testament that this word occurs. For He who has entered His rest has Himself also ceased from His works as God did from His. This understanding and this verse brings us down to the realization that there is a remaining keeping of the Sabbath, a Sabbathismos for the people of God.

As we keep that Sabbath day, we then foreshadow the future coming Kingdom of God. We keep it as a type of certainly a memorial of God's creation and the whole concept that is wrapped up here. But what Paul is doing is he's showing that it also has a future reference in that it is still to be kept.

There is still a keeping of the Sabbath here, and it is that spiritual dimension that is most important. Without it being said in this specifically, the Sabbath is being lifted far beyond anything that it was for Israel. It becomes more than just a sign of a particular people. God had a number of different signs for the Israelites, the Sabbath being one of them. Circumcision was another. But it becomes far more than just something that is tied to a physical covenant.

It is tied now to a spiritual covenant that God has made with His people. And we'll be making with all of mankind in the future. Actually, verse 9 is then a verse that shows us there remains a rest for the people of God.

And as we are entering into that rest, when we go back to what verse 3 says, that we who have believed are entering, or are entering that rest as He said, we combine those thoughts into a true understanding of what God is telling us. Again, that is, as we continue to keep the Sabbath, we are letting God do His work within us, but we are also foreshadowing that future time when God's rest will be upon the entire world.

That rest, indicating then a relationship with Him that is not only physical, but as spiritual as God does His work within and among His people. And when that takes place, when that happens, then the whole world is going to experience the spiritual benefit of not just the Sabbath itself, but a complete relationship of God and what God is doing with mankind. Now, this opens up a past and a present, and then certainly a future application for the knowledge and the meaning of the Sabbath.

It's important to keep this in a proper perspective with all the other Scriptures on the Sabbath that not only talk about it in the Old Testament, but even the prophecies about the Sabbath and the other teachings in regard to Christ being the Lord of the Sabbath and how Christ came to liberate the Sabbath from a lot of the physical matters that the Jews had put upon it that were burdens and restrictions.

But it jumps us into a future understanding of what God is ultimately going to bring to this world. And that's really the reality of the Sabbath today. Now, when you look at this historically, there were certain errors that eventually crept into the church by the time of the second century as people who were in the church at that time, the church as it was, trying to move themselves away from anything connected with the Jews who were a despised group of people at that time in the Roman Empire. The Sabbath was one of the first things that they began to alter and to change.

And it's interesting when you look into the studies of this, but part of the theology that developed in the first half of the second century was in an attempt to do away with the need to keep a Sabbath at that time, was the idea that the Sabbath would be in effect in the future.

There's a writing called the Epistle of Barnabas, not connected with the Barnabas of the Book of Acts. And that puts that idea out there, that the Sabbath will be kept in the future, but we don't have to keep it today. In fact, in the 1994-1995 period, as some were making a very strong effort to do away with the Sabbath, I heard that one argument from actually a very good friend of mine who made that argument, as he was abandoning the truth of the Sabbath.

And I was surprised when I did some research later on to find out that what he had done was basically, without knowing it probably, picked up a heresy from the 2nd century and applied it to, at that time, still the 20th century, experienced it in an effort to justify exactly what he was doing. So it's a very, very powerful Scripture here to point us to the rest that remains for us in the keeping of the Sabbath in this particular way.

Moving on to verse 11. It says, "...let us therefore to be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience." Be diligent to enter that rest, that future rest of the millennium and of the kingdom of God, lest we fall according to the same example of disobedience. That example is that of the Israelites. 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 tells us that all of those things were written for our admonition.

Speaking of the matters of Israel, their entire story, their entire experience was written as an admonition upon us upon whom the end of the age has come. They're written for us to be an example. And this is what Paul is bringing out here, that we might have an example of disobedience and make sure that we enter into that rest. "...for the word of God," it says, "...is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." So now he jumps to making a straightforward statement about the word of God being sharper than any two-edged sword.

We should all understand just how sharp a two-edged sword can be and that it cuts on two sides as it makes its mark. It divides to the innermost depth of our life and of our whole being, even between the bones itself, the joints and the marrow. It discerns our thoughts and the intents of our hearts.

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked, and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account." The word of God, the Bible, has endured for millennia. No other word that you can look at has been through the method of transmission. Multiple authors over hundreds of years, multiple translations, and come down to us intact, as has the Bible. And it's a remarkable document, and it is a very powerful word. We did a Beyond Today program recently on the Sabbath, and one of the things I pointed out was something that an author had made as she talked about the Sabbath, talking about when people were able to get the Bible in their own language in the 1600s, after the invention of the printing press during the Reformation period.

And people began to read the Bible for the first time in their own language. The point this one author made was, as they read the Bible, they read about the Sabbath, and they learned about the Sabbath, and they began to keep the Sabbath. The point was, you read the Bible, and you see the Sabbath in there, just that one doctrine, that one teaching alone. Very, very powerful. You read the Bible, you learn a lot of other things, and its words leap off the pages at you, and it compels one to action.

You cannot read the Bible literally with an open mind and remain inactive. It compels us to do something. That's why it is so living, powerful, and very, very sharp in its entire approach. And as a result of that, no one is hidden from His sight, that all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him whom we must give account.

This is another very powerful, powerful statement. I'm going to go back to the account in the Gospels, where on the night Christ was crucified, and Peter said, I'll never deny you. Christ said, yes, you will, three times. And when Christ was in the home of the high priest, Peter was out in the courtyard, and he was identified on three occasions as one of them who was with Jesus, and he denied Him, and on the third time, the cock crowed. And Christ, in Luke's account, turns and looks at Peter, and their eyes meet. It's a chilling scene to think about. And you look at this, and it says, all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Peter was laid stark naked in that one look from Christ on that night. And there are times when you and I are going to be laid wide open, flayed and skinned, hanging like an animal from a hook in a meat locker, wide open. When we really do look into and let the Word of God do its work with us spiritually, because if we understand it from that point of view, we can't read this with any other idea other than the fact that our thoughts, our intents, our heart, everything is known of God, and we will then have to give an account.

In verse 14, he says, "...seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." Again, this concept of holding fast is one that you see continually through Hebrews, holding on, not letting go, not losing out, holding on to the promise, and doing so because we have a great high priest, Jesus Christ, who has passed through the heavens and is at the throne of God, making intercession for God's people night and day. He says, "...we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, because in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." Christ came and lived among men, and He experienced everything to the point of suffering, every temptation and even to the suffering of death.

No other story of any other God of mythology and antiquity did the same thing. They're all detached from men, from humanity. Christ came, God in the flesh, and He was tempted in all points. And so that makes Him a much, much better high priest for any of us, because He alone knows what we go through, what it means to be human, to be tempted to sin and in need of mercy and in need of forgiveness.

He was tempted, yet without sin. And He knows. Have you ever heard of a tragedy that might take place in a certain locale, a certain town, a certain country, and it's a place you've been? And you may even have friends there. You might even have relatives. We just had a hurricane go through Oklahoma. How many people, when they heard about that, had family or friends in Oklahoma City? More Oklahoma. And worried, are they hurt?

What's happened to them? And get frantic and make phone calls? I heard of somebody's grandmother was there, and he drove up from Texas and started looking for his grandmother. Couldn't get hold of her. When you've been to a place, when you know a place, when you know people in a place, and you hear that something tragic has happened there, it's more than a place. You know that place. You know people there. That's what is really being said here. When Christ hears us in a prayer of forgiveness, seeking help, seeking strength, He's been there. He knows the place, and He knows what it's like.

And therefore, it makes Him that merciful High Priest. And if we have that understanding, we can therefore go boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and grace in time of need. So, more about the role of Christ as a High Priest will be brought out in subsequent chapters. But that brings us to the end of chapter 4, and time for Mr. Myers.

So, we'll switch here.

It talks about the fact that we can come boldly before Him, which is one of those reminders that we can hold God to His promises, which is a wonderful thing that we're able to do. When a parent promises a child something, they have a tendency to hold you to that, don't they? And they're going to remind you of that. And when you think of God as our Father, He's given us some amazing promises. Fantastic promises. And so, when we need healing, what does He promise us in His Word? What are the promises that are... does He promise to always be with us? Does He promise to never forsake us? And when we have those feelings as though maybe it feels like that, we can ask God to intervene for us and remind Him of those promises. And in a right way, in a good way, we can hold God to those promises because He can't wait to fulfill those promises for us. And so, I think that's just a wonderful balance of the Word of God and how He is a loving Father.

In fact, the way that I believe the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews really gives us some insight. One of the things, as Mr. McNeely was going through Chapter 4, that I think points to that fact that Paul, again, is the author, was how intricate he was with some of the understanding of the whole system. The whole system of what the Sabbath was about. What was the history of Israel? What were the circumstances? What did the priesthood do? And he's going to point that out even more as we go through Chapter 5 here. Because he's going to continue this analogy, I guess you could say, or in a sense, it's comparing and contrasting. As you saw about the rest and the Sabbath, he's going to continue that in Chapter 5 and compare the physical and the spiritual. And continue that whole connection between those two. And he saw that with the Sabbath, with this concept of rest in Chapter 4, which certainly he was pointing to the fact that the Israelites had rest, and that rest was found where? It was found in the Promised Land. So there was that connection. But he also compared that to the rest that we can have, the Sabbathismos. The Sabbathismos that we can have should reflect the spiritual rest that ultimately isn't in a physical Promised Land, but it's in the Kingdom of God. So when Christ returns, there will be rest. There will be a place of rest, as this cotopuses or this cotoposan talks about. But there is the Kingdom of God established on this earth. So he continues connecting this physical representation of what Israel went through, and what we as God's people look forward to in the spiritual sense. And so as he goes on, just at the end of Chapter 4, he started getting into the priesthood a little bit. And so he talked about the High Priest, the physical High Priest. And so we'll just put this one as the physical High Priest. And now he's going to make that connection as we should begin to think about Jesus Christ as our High Priest, our spiritual High Priest. In fact, if it wasn't for the Apostle Paul in the book of Hebrews, we really wouldn't understand this amazing concept of Jesus Christ as our High Priest. We wouldn't know that if it hadn't been for the book of Hebrews. And so he makes this amazing connection. In fact, if you want to flip over to Chapter 5, he starts out on the physical side of things and talking about the regular physical High Priest. He says, every High Priest taken from among men, so okay, we're talking about a physical thing, says they're appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that He may both offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. So he talks about the function of what did a priest do? The priest went into the tabernacle, they went into the temple, they sacrificed on the altar, in a sense they were advocating before God on behalf of men. And so he begins to paint that picture in order to make this spiritual connection to Jesus Christ. So let's notice that then in verse 2. This physical High Priest says, he can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. And that's, of course, interesting because I'm always reminded of the Day of Atonement. And on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would sacrifice on behalf of the people's sins. You remember they would do various sacrifices and do some sprinkling and different things. But it always began with a sacrifice for himself, that he first would have to be cleaned up and consecrated. Then he was able to offer sacrifices for others, in fact for the entirety of Israel. And so here we see even the physical High Priest should have compassion. He should have a sense that he's no better than they are. He was subject to weakness.

He should be able to bear with other people's problems without getting upset, without getting irritated. In fact, that's the definition of this word, compassion. It means not getting upset with other people because they're weak, or they don't do what they're supposed to do, that you don't lose your temper when somebody else is losing theirs.

When somebody else is acting foolishly, you maintain control. And so that's kind of the idea behind this word for compassion. That this High Priest was supposed to be able to do that. I wonder if that was always the case or not. Physically, not really sure that that happened. But let's notice how he compares that then as he draws us a little bit closer to this analogy with Christ. So, verse 3, the physical priest, because of this, he's required as for the people, also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sin.

So that was part of his duties. To offer that sacrifice for sin, whether it be a bull, or a goat, or a lamb, or a turtledove. That was his responsibility throughout the year, and he was required to do that. That was a requirement for him. Now, verse 4, he says, No man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God just as Aaron was.

If you remember all the way back when we began the book of Hebrews, we talked about these comparisons that Paul was going to make between the things that were better. One of the things that's better here is there is a better priesthood.

And Christ is high priest of a better priesthood. Better than the Arionic priesthood. Better than the Levitical priesthood. Because in those orders, in that priesthood, could you just say, Hey, I think I'll be a priest. Could anybody just claim that right? If you were born in the tribe of Judah, could you just claim to be a priest? Or if you were a Benjaminite, could you just say, I always wanted to grow up to be a priest.

Well, it didn't matter because you couldn't choose to do that. That wasn't a choice. That was designated by your lineage, by your heritage. Only those of the sons of Levite from his heritage could be priests. And so you couldn't just do that. Or in other words, a different way to think about it is, who ultimately did the choosing?

You see, it wasn't a person. It was God, in a sense, if you happen to be born in that line. Now the reason that becomes important is what he says in verse 5. He says, So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest. But it was he who said to him, You are my son.

Today I have begotten you. And that begins to point to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. In fact, that little section right there is taken from Psalm 2, verse 7. And we really wouldn't understand what that Psalm was getting at if Paul hadn't quoted it here in the book of Hebrews. We might read that and wonder, well, who exactly is that talking about? But here we begin to see very clearly that Christ is the one who is referred to as the Son, who is also then referred to as the High Priest. So God the Father is saying, You are my son.

Today I have begotten you. So we have this family relationship. Fathers beget their children. And so as a High Priest, God the Father begot Jesus Christ and appointed Him as the Christ. And in fact, in the Greek here in verse 5, it actually says that.

So also, the Christ did not glorify Himself. So it points even more specifically to that, what do they call it, a definite article. The Christ, the definite article, the promise Savior, the promised Messiah. So the Messiah didn't glorify Himself, but God established Him there. He was the one who had begotten Jesus Christ.

So instead of just being a priest like the physical High Priest, we see very clearly, God specifically made the choice that Jesus Christ, His Son, would serve as our High Priest. So we see this isn't just something that was left up to happenstance. And then it also gives us insight that this High Priest was unlike this tribe of Levi that served in ancient Israel. Because in this sense, we have this family relationship.

We have a Father, God the Father, and we have Jesus Christ, His Son, which then also connects with us, because we are also His brothers and sisters. And so this family relationship begins to come a little bit clearer here as well. And I think that's an exciting thing to begin to understand, that most religion doesn't have any idea what they're talking about when He begins to delineate this family relationship, and really what the spiritual implication of all these things really turns out to be.

And so the meaning is so intricate between the connections between the Old Testament and the physical aspects of things, and then the spiritual meaning behind it, that only somebody, it seems to me, like the Apostle Paul, who had an in-depth understanding and training in this type of thing, would be able to make those connections, then being trained by Christ as well. So we get to have that insight into these things, because the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Hebrews.

Okay, well now he's going to continue on a little bit further and draw a couple more connections. Down in verse 6, he says, as he also says in another place, so the he, implying the Father, he says, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And so we find that Jesus, as this high priest, is after the order of Melchizedek. So here Christ is joined with that. Sometimes it's spelled in C-H, yeah, that's right. And so as we look at this, this is a quotation all the way back from Psalm 110. So if you want to turn back to Psalm 110, right at the very beginning of the chapter there, we'll see the reference that he makes here in Psalm 110. Let's see what verse that actually is at.

Psalm 110, verse 4, The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So here we have that direct quotation that the Apostle Paul uses, which also refers back to the only other reference in the Old Testament. There's only two references to this Melchizedek in the Old Testament. All the way back to Genesis is where you have to go in order to find that one. Genesis 14, and it's in verse 18. If you want to take a look there, Genesis 14, 18, we'll see a little bit more information about this Melchizedek. How is Christ a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek? Well, we'll get a little bit of that insight here in Genesis 14, verse 18. And here we have Abraham coming back after a big victory. They had Lot, and they came after this great victory. And we see what happens here. Verse 18, Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and was the priest of God Most High. Verse 19, he blessed Abraham and said, Bless be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and bless be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And so, this Melchizedek just kind of appears. There is no record of him before this. He seems to have come out of nowhere and just shows up. He's shown to be the king of Salem. Salem seems to point back to Jerusalem. So, who is this priest of the Most High God? If you want to flip back to Hebrews, let's take a note. We'll get just a little bit more information about him in chapter 7 of Hebrews. If you go over to chapter 7, we'll see just a little bit more information. As Paul harkens back to that quote in Genesis, he says, This Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. And then, of course, in verse 2, it says, Abraham gave a tenth part, first being translated king of righteousness. And so, it is the translation of Melchizedek means king of righteousness. But we also see he is king of Salem. And literally, Salem means peace. So, he is king of peace, and he is king of righteousness. And going back to chapter 5, we see that Christ, then, is a priest forever, according to that order. Of course, there were orders in the priesthood, groups of priests who would serve at various times.

And so, we see that Christ is one of those that is after the order of not a physical high priest or a physical priest, but after this Melchizedek. And in verse 3 of chapter 7, sorry I had to go back, but if you go back to chapter 7, verse 3, here we see why this Melchizedek just kind of appeared on the scene back in Genesis. He says in verse 3, chapter 7, he is without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days or end of life, but made like the Son of God and remains a priest continually.

Does that sound like a person that doesn't have a father or mother? That doesn't sound like a person. Well, who is king of peace and who is king of righteousness? Who is king of peace, have a physical father or a physical mother? Does he have a genealogy in that sense? Well, Jesus Christ does not. He is eternal. And so we see here, he is made like the Son of God. Does that mean, well, it's sort of like Christ or is it Christ? It is Christ.

Now why would we say that? Because it says, well, it's like Christ. Of course, this Melchizedek, when did he appear on the scene? He appeared on the scene during the time of Abraham. Had Jesus Christ been born yet? No, he hadn't been born yet. So this Melchizedek is the one who would become Jesus Christ. So Paul could say this Melchizedek was like the Son of God. He hadn't yet been born the Son of God. It's kind of like when we say, well, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament may not give exactly the right amount of information, because he really wasn't Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.

He could be called the Logos or called the Word. But he wasn't Jesus Christ until he was born into the flesh from then on. So that's where he gets a little bit picky. And you kind of see why Paul could be very technical about these things at different times. And so we see that he's making this comparison, that Melchizedek must be Christ without a physical father, without a physical mother. That goes against everything that a physical priest would be.

Because the thing that qualified you to be a physical priest was who your mom and dad were. What tribe you came from. But Christ was different. Christ was different. And we ultimately see that that's the order that he's after. In fact, there was no order. He's it. There was no grouping of priests. It was Melchizedek. And here Jesus Christ is that high priest. And so no wonder he could say, without beginning or without end, that he was serving in that capacity right from the very start.

And so as we begin to see that, the succession of priesthood that would be valid in the Old Testament has no effect on Jesus Christ. No effect on Christ. Christ as our high priest. As the one who would be going before God on our behalf. And so as we look at this concept of Melchizedek, it begins to come a little bit clearer as we see the function that Jesus Christ has. As our king of righteousness. As our king of peace. As the one who makes intercession for us. And Paul's going to go into this in so much more detail.

And we'll see more and more of this as we go on from here. So it's also interesting, maybe as a side light too, some would argue, well maybe instead of having this as the name Melchizedek, maybe Paul just meant the king of righteousness.

And maybe we should just translate it that and have it as some kind of a spiritual concept, rather than the reality of the individual of Jesus Christ. Now the problem with that is, what happened to this individual? Where does it go with it? If Melchizedek had been a physical priest who had died, if he was a physical individual at the time of Abraham, that would do an end to that priesthood.

But Paul draws the analogy here that Melchizedek is still serving and still serves today, was in that capacity back at the time of Abraham, and continues on all the way to now. And so we can see that connection then become a little bit clearer as Paul draws that analogy. So hopefully that helps that concept to become a little bit clearer, and helps us to see that this comparing and contrasting between the physical and the spiritual is something that Paul continues to go on with here.

Okay, let's go on for a verse or two more here, if we can. We'll see where we go from here. We see that this Melchizedek, it says, let's go back to the verse we're supposed to be at though. In verse 7 is where we left off, it says, Who in the days of his flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with Vium and Christ. Now we flip back to this connection between Melchizedek and Christ. So Christ, in the days of his flesh, so we're talking about Christ's earthly ministry, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with Vium and Christ in tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear.

It says, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. So here Paul makes this connection between Christ, Melchizedek, and just times before the crucifixion. Oftentimes people will think this, verse 7 must be referring to the prayers that Christ gave just before the crucifixion, maybe in the garden when he sweated drops of blood and was crying out to God. It may not have been in the garden because the disciples were sleeping during that time. So if he was crying out with Vium and Christ, it says, which is really weeping and wailing is kind of the emphasis there, that maybe they wouldn't have been sleeping at that time.

It's hard to say. But it seems to imply that this wasn't just a one-time thing for Christ. There are many times in his life because it says, in the days of his flesh. So maybe not just a one-time thing, but Christ was in the practice of offering of prayers and supplications and tears. We know how many times he was moved to compassion and emotion throughout his ministry. And so here is another example of the compassion. Remember, he's comparing this back to the couple verses at the beginning of chapter 5 where this high priest, physical high priest, was supposed to have compassion on the people.

He was supposed to be able to identify with them. Now we see Christ even more so, even more so than a man who went before God in a physical temple. Jesus Christ, going before the Father, has ultimate compassion upon us. He's one who vehemently cried out on our behalf.

He was one, what is it the Jewish tradition talks about, prayers and tears and crying as kind of three sorts of prayers. And this kind of entails some of those types of things. This is heartfelt, searing prayer that went right to the throne of God the Father. And so Christ isn't just praying a simple little thing, but right to the heart of the matter. And praying that God's will be done. And so we see the compassion that He has upon us.

And of course it also says that He experienced these things. He experienced the sacrifice on our behalf. He experienced the beating. He experienced the crucifixion on our behalf. And it says something almost kind of startling when it says He learned obedience by the things He suffered. Well, how could Christ learn anything? If Christ was God, how could God learn anything if God is God? And God is all-knowing and He's omniscient. And how would that be possible that though He was a son, He learned obedience?

That's a good question. It's hard to figure out exactly what it means. But I think it doesn't mean that it was something He didn't know before. Because I think God understands those things. But there's certainly a difference between knowing something and experiencing something. Maybe just as a very simple physical example. I understood what it was like to lose your job for keeping the Sabbath, even though I'd never experienced that. I knew what that was like. I had plenty of friends who had lost their jobs because of the Sabbath. And, you know, we're out of work.

But it took on a whole different significance when I lost my job because I kept the Sabbath. And I think in a sense, maybe that might just give us a little bit of insight to what Paul is talking about here. Christ had to know what it was to obey, no doubt. He gave up the Godhead to become Immanuel. But did He see that at a deeper level as being a man and suffering on our behalf?

I think maybe that's what Paul is getting at here in this particular sense. That he was understanding it at that much of a deeper level, all on our behalf. And so I think that's where he's getting at. And in fact, he's going to continue to make those types of connections between Jesus Christ as our spiritual high priest and these physical aspects of the priesthood as we go along.

We're already over time, so I suppose we maybe better stop there. That's probably a decent stopping spot for the moment. We'll pick it up, I guess, in verse 9 next time. I don't know if anyone has any comments or questions. I don't know if any questions came in. All right. Well, I guess we must have dazzled them then, I guess. All right. I think we'll leave it at that then. We'll look forward to picking up Hebrews 5, verse 9, is where we'll catch it for next time. Thank you all for coming out. Have a very good evening, and we'll look forward to seeing you next time.