Hebrews 1:1-2:4 "Listen Up!" & Overview

Dr. Terry introduces the Book of Hebrews, emphasizing its mystery authorship. He explains the historical context of Jewish scholars in Alexandria and the importance of the Greek Septuagint translation. Different scholars throughout history have been suggested as the author of Hebrews, including Barnabas, Apollos, Clement of Rome, and Dr. Luke. The unique style and content of Hebrews set it apart from other biblical books, reflecting Alexandrian scholarship influence. He says the author is unknown and highlights the book's distinctiveness. Good morning. You all doing okay today? Good to see all of you today. Happy to start the book of Hebrews. So, if you have your copy of the scripture, would you turn to the book of Hebrews? And if you don't remember, it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Acts 11 and Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, 1st, 2nd, 3rd. You got it? Did you find the book of Hebrews? Okay, good. As long as you've got the book of Hebrews and you know where it is. Now, I have two Sundays to do chapter 1 and 2 and an introduction. So, I will try to be faithful to all three of those and see if we can't come to some understanding about this unusual book. And I say unusual because as of this particular day, nobody in the entire world knows who wrote the book of Hebrews. Nobody. Nobody. And if anybody says they know who wrote the book of Hebrews, they don't know what they're talking about. Because over 21 centuries of scholars looking at the book of Hebrews, no one has come to a conclusion as to who the author of the book of Hebrews was. We're going to make several suggestions in the introduction as to who the author could have been. Any of the above we talk about are possibilities and yet when you come to the bottom line, probably the answer is they're not the one. In fact, in the book of Hebrews, it's an unusual book in that it has an unusual flavor that you do not find in any of the books in the entire Bible. It has a flavor of Alexandrian scholarship. Now, I don't want to be too complicated with you all. I don't want you to think complications. It's not a complication. It just happens to be a fact that there were two places during the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews where Jewish scholars had gathered and the Jewish scholars were there together and they were writing great pieces of material. One of them was Egypt. In fact, in about the third century BCE, before Christ, there were some...Alexander the Great had died and he had left the world actually under the leadership of four of his generals who were called the Tondolees. And the Tondolees had taken over most all of the known world with the exception...I mean they were called the Seleucids and they had taken over the world just about everywhere except in Egypt. And down in Egypt, they were ruled by a group of people called the Tondolees. And so you had the Seleucids who were the generals of Alexander the Great who were given the world and you know one who was very popular. His name was Antiochus Epiphanes. And Antiochus Epiphanes was the Seleucid king who ruled over all of Israel and half of the world, of all of Babylon, the Babylonian area, the Persian area, what is now Turkey and what is now Iran and what is now Israel and what's...all of the others...Turkey. They were all ruled by this Seleucid king by the name Antiochus Epiphanes. And you know in the 3rd century, he tried to turn the entire world over into Greek culture. He was a Macedon, he was a Greek general and he wanted to make the entire world Greek. And that's when he brought a pig down to the temple in Jerusalem and sacrificed a pig on the temple altar which was a very, very strong no-no. And because of that a great war broke out and you probably remember the name of the Maccabee boys and there was a war against this Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes and there was a great lot of conflict going on in the nation of Israel and during that time many of the great scholars of the Hebrew word left the area and went to Egypt. And they settled in a new city that Alexander the Great had developed in the nation of Egypt called Alexandria the female relationship to Alexander. And he developed Alexandria right on the coast and Alexandria became the leading center of Jewish scholarship in the entire world from 3 BCE until about 150 CE. So it was a great scholarship area where all of the Jewish scholars went to do their work. They were free there. The Ptolemies who were in charge were very, very receptive of the Jewish people. In fact, they invited the Jewish people to come down to Egypt. They gave them farmland. They were great business people. They were very conscientious of their work especially in scholarship and especially in all kinds of materials like farming and haberdashery. They were very, very wonderful people and the Ptolemies were happy to have them in Egypt. And because of that, the Jewish scholars set up a great school of Jewish scholarship in the city of Alexandria. Now somewhere along the way you're going to hear two words and you need to be aware of the fact that some of the scholars stayed in Jerusalem and these were called the Palestinian scholars because they stayed in Jerusalem. They stayed in Palestine. The rest of them went down to Egypt and you'll hear them or when you're reading and you run across the fact that this particular man was a scholar in the Alexandrian school, you will understand that he was a Jewish scholar who went to Egypt and worked in the Alexandrian school. Let me tell you how very effective the Alexandrian school was. It was so effective that they asked a Jewish scholar to translate the entire Hebrew Bible which would have been the entirety of the Torah with 35 books, the books of history, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, the history books, the books of wisdom, the books of poetry, and then they asked him to translate all of the books of the prophet. In fact, they asked him to translate the Hebrew Bible from Hebrew to Greek and when he finished it down in Egypt, they named it the Greek Septuagint. And it was the Greek Hebrew Bible. And it was able now for the Greek people who could not read Hebrew to read the Hebrew Bible because it is now in Greek. Now this is interesting, go down about 10 centuries or 4 or 5 centuries to about the 4th or 5th century after Christ CE and you run into a young priest whose name was Jerome and Jerome lived in the city of Bethlehem and Jerome was a scholar in the Catholic faith, in the faith of the Lord and he was a great translator. And Jerome took the Greek Septuagint, the Greek Bible and sitting in a cave under the Church of the Nativity in the city of Bethlehem in a very dark cave for 9 years he translated the Greek Septuagint into Latin so that the Holy Roman Catholic Church of the western part could have a book in Latin which was the book of the Old Testament. And he translated the entire Old Testament and New Testament from Greek into Latin. Later on, English scholars in the 16th century took that Latin Vulgate that he had translated in the city of London sitting in the upper room in the cathedral they translated the Latin Vulgate into English and that's what you have in your lap. You have the English translation of the Latin Vulgate no matter what copy of the scripture you have. Whether you have King James or New King James or whatever you have you have a copy of the translation of the Hebrew, Latin Vulgate from the Greek Septuagint and you now hold that in English translated in 1600 by the British scholars. And so that's how we got our Bible. And these scholars were very, very important to the Jewish people because they were the aristocracy of the scholarship of all of Israel. And they were down in Alexandria where they had gone when the Seleucids under Antiochus Epiphanes waged war on the people of Israel and they left and went to Alexandria and there they began their ministry of scholarship. So now we come back to say the book of Hebrews has the flavor of the Alexandrian scholars. That's why it is like no other book in the entire Word of God. You can read all 66 of the books and you will never read a book that is similar to the book of Hebrews. It has a flavor. It has a flavor that's outside the flavor of the Apostle Paul. It is outside the flavor of any of the disciples who wrote the Gospels. It is outside the flavor of John the Beloved. The words of the book of Hebrews is totally outside of everything that we had known in the scriptural text by Mark or by Luke or by Matthew or by John or by Paul or by any other people. It's different. It is totally different. And the words of it just flow as you read the book of Hebrews and you come to understand several things about it. Now let me share some things with you about the book of Hebrews. There was a great father of the church in the early centuries, first century, second century, whose name was Origen. Origen wrote these words. Who wrote the epistle? God only knows. Having read the book of Hebrews, Origen came to the conclusion, we don't know. Tertullian, who likewise was one of the great fathers, he too said, Barnabas wrote the book of Hebrews. Now, when you hear that word Barnabas, you know who he was. He was Paul's missionary partner on the first missionary journey. And here's the name Barnabas attached to the book of Hebrews kind of says, what? Barnabas? You know, you don't think of Barnabas being that kind of scholar. You don't think of Barnabas being this kind of writer. Yet, may I tell you that now, 21st century scholarship coming up to this point still says that Barnabas is probably the most likely person who had written the book of Hebrews. Now that's very difficult for me to swallow. And it's probably very difficult for you to swallow to think about Barnabas being the writer of the book of Hebrews. Well, some said maybe it was Apollos. Others said, well, maybe it was Clement of Rome. Back in about 74, 75 AD when Clement was one of the leading fathers of the church in Rome because this book appears to be going to the church in Rome and perhaps it was Clement and yet everybody says, no, Clement wrote other materials, nothing like this. Some said, well, maybe Dr. Luke wrote it. Now, there's a possibility. You remember, Dr. Luke wrote the book of Luke and he wrote the book of Acts. And in both of those books, he introduces the book by talking to a friend of his, oh, most worthy, and he calls his name. He does it in the book of Luke, he does it in the book of Acts in the very first verses. And he identifies the name of a great person with whom he had intimate relationships and he wrote the book in his favor. But it's not in the book of Hebrews. However, in recent scholarship, one of our professors at Southwestern Seminary by the name of Dr. David Allen, who is a Lukean scholar, has come to the conclusion that probably Luke wrote a good portion of the book of Hebrews. Not all of it, but a good portion of it. And I would take David's relationship to that book before I would take anybody else's. I sure would take Dr. Luke before I'd take Barnabas. And so I would go with Dr. Luke before I'd go with Barnabas. However, there is another problem. You see, the book of Hebrews is full of problems when you try to find out who the author is. Would you believe that in the book of Hebrews there are a number of feminine Greek and Hebrew identifications? There are a lot of feminine structures. It looks like some lady wrote something. Because in the book of Hebrews, if you read it in the original language in the Greek, you run into a lot of feminine Greek constructions which a man would never use. And only a woman would use it. And many scholars think that perhaps Priscilla, who was a great lady with Aquila, her husband from Rome, and you remember they were the ones who took Apollos to the side, and they helped Apollos to be more creative in what he was doing, and helped him get to a better knowledge of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And you remember Priscilla and Aquila were very important to the first century. Perhaps she did write some stuff down and some way that material worked its way into the book of Hebrews because in the book of Hebrews there are a number of feminine constructions. And the only person, probably, and we won't know until we get to heaven, who wrote this, probably, if anybody put those constructions in, it was probably Priscilla. Now think for a minute. This book is being written in 6468. Paul is executed in 68. 64 to 68, Paul has come back from the missionary journey to Spain. While he's gone, Nero had a working, running fit, and he burned the city of Rome down. And you remember he sang an aria while the city of Rome burned. He fashioned himself to be a great aria singer. And then he blamed the Hebrews, he blamed the Jews, and he blamed the Christians for burning down Rome. And that's when the persecution began. When that persecution began by Nero to the Christian faith and to the Jewish faith, Paul and his company party, including Timothy and Silas, were in Spain. And they didn't know anything about the persecution. And somewhere in 64, 65, Paul and his missionary party come back to the city of Rome. And when he comes back, he is the number one enemy of the state. Now, I can't go back because we've talked about this before, and I've told you about this before. Paul went to a game in the area that we now identify as Yugoslavia. They had a great athletic game. Paul had just come back from Spain. He didn't know about the persecution that Nero had leveled on the Christian church and on the Jewish church. But Paul was very interested in athletics, as you well know from all of his writings. He wrote a great deal about athletics. He said, put on the whole armor of God. He talked about being a runner. He talked about running the race. He was very athletic. He loved the games. And he went to this game somewhere in the area of Yugoslavia. And guess who showed up? Nero. Nero showed up. And Nero took part in the games. In fact, every time Nero took part in the games, guess who won? Nero. And Nero happened to have seen Paul. And when Nero got back to Rome, he put a target on the back of the Apostle Paul. And from that day on, that was about 65 going toward 66, Paul was the number one enemy of the Roman Empire. He was captured. He was put in prison. And the book of Hebrews may have come out of his imprisonment when he was there with Dr. Luke, with Priscilla, and with John Mark, and with the others. And perhaps some of the book of Hebrews came out of that. But it appears more likely that it did come from the Alexandrian school. Now, because of that, it makes this book very interesting. Because the book is a book that's going to identify in spiritual terms what we know in physical reality. Now let me help you understand what I'm talking about. We know in a physical reality that we have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gifts of God. We understand that Jesus Christ did in truth come to this earth. He did in truth live among men as a man. He did take on the form of a servant. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto God so that he was so obedient that he gave his life for the kingdom. Now, we know all of that physically. We know his sacrificial death at Calvary gave us redemption through his blood. We know that on the day that he died, he was immediately translated to the kingdom of God with his father. And yet the next morning, after his crucifixion, on the Sabbath day, when the ladies came to the tomb, his body was gone. And you remember what the angels said to the ladies when they came to the tomb? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Do you not know that he said he will rise from the dead? He has risen as he said. Go back and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. All of them left except one. Mary of Magdala. She did not leave. She loved Jesus so much, she wanted his body. She wanted to find him. Where did you put him? Where did you take him? And she was there in the garden, early morning, foggy, kind of dense fog. I've been in that garden in early morning. There's a dense fog in that garden every morning. And all of a sudden, she sees the form of a man thinking he is the gardener. She walks up to him in the foggy day and she says, Sir, what have you done with his body? If you will tell me where you have taken his body, I will go and get it and bring it back. I love him. Jesus said, Mary? She fell down on his feet and grabbed his legs. Oh, my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ. And he said, Mary, don't keep clinging to me. Don't you know that I must go to my Father's house and your Father's house and your Father and my Father and I must go there today and be in the presence of my Father in the spiritual tabernacle in heaven where God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and all the holy angels and the saints of God live in that spiritual realm out of which we are not a part except in our redemptive life. Now I'm back to my statement. We understand this physical relationship, how Jesus died physically for us, how he was crucified physically, how he rose physically, how he was seen for over 40 days by over 500 people plus, how he was reascended to the Father, how he told us he is coming back. We have all of that. We have that physical part. But Hebrews is going to take us into the spiritual heaven and now watch this next statement because it's very important. Beyond the veil. Now those words, beyond the veil, are very important because in the tabernacle and in the temple there was only one thing beyond the veil. The veil was that great curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. And in the holy of holies was the mercy seat, the Ark of the Covenant, the redemptive process, the blood-covered seat that took the remission of sins for people who confessed their sins. And that was behind the veil. And nobody went behind the veil except the high priest. And that only one day a year or the day of Yom Kippur last Wednesday and Thursday. Oh, by the way, we are now in the holy week of Sukkot, the week of tabernacles. And the Jewish faith is now celebrating eight days of the booth, the tabernacles called Sukkot. It's the last, the seventh feast. That's when they're going to tabernacle and that's what we're waiting for because when Jesus comes, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to leave these tabernacles and guess where we're going? Okay. That's the physical side of it all. Now, in the book of Hebrews, the writer is going to take us into the spiritual side of it all. And he's going to take us into the eternal throne room of God behind the veil. And we will be in that throne room where our Ark of the Covenant, Jesus Christ the Lord, sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. Okay? Now, that's where the book of Hebrews is going. Now, let's talk about a couple of things before we look at the first chapter. Where was this book going? To whom was it written? Well, immediately, we know by its name that it was written to the Jews. Now, there are about four books in the New Testament that were specifically written to Jews. Specifically. One was the book of James. Another was the book of Jude. Another was the book of Hebrews. And another was the book of... Can you tell me which other went specifically to Jews? There were four. You think carefully which of the other would go... You have Jude, you have James, you have Hebrews. I'll let you think about that. I'll tell you next Sunday. You think about it over the week and we'll find out next Sunday. There are basically four books that primarily were written to Jewish people, for Jewish people. And we'll see which the other is. So, since the book of Hebrews was written in Hebrews, it was going to Jewish people. Where? Where was it going? Which church was going to receive this book? Now, a lot of people think that perhaps the book first went to Jerusalem. And it was going to Jerusalem because that's where the greatest number of Jewish people would be located. Untrue. Jerusalem had almost been emptied out. The vast majority of Jewish people were in Egypt. The other vast majority of Jewish people were in Rome. In fact, they had a larger Jewish contingent of Jewish Hebrew speaking people in Rome than they did in Jerusalem. Now, in the 10th chapter, about the 48th verse, it says that this book was going to be sent to a bountiful city. A very wealthy city. One that abounds with great wealth. That's not Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been totally annihilated. The temple had been in ruins. It was laying in rock heaps on the ground. Jerusalem was a place where the foxes and the wild animals roamed at night time and it was difficult to live there. It was not going to Jerusalem. It was going to Rome. It was going to the Roman people because in the end of the book of Hebrews there's a statement that says and the Italians give you greetings. Why would the Italians be giving greetings to Jerusalem? They're giving greetings to Rome. And so, this book was headed for the city of Rome and it is specifically identified to the Hebrew people where the Holy of Holy presently exists. I'm letting that sink in. The temple's gone. It's not there. When Nebuchadnezzar took the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. he took all of the great implements of the temple with him to Babylon including the Ark of the Covenant in 586-87 B.C. That Ark of the Covenant never came back to Jerusalem. Never. In fact, I have Jewish books in my library that say specifically during the time of the Lord Christ when the High Priest on the Day of Atonement the Day of Atonement Yom Kippur went into the Holy of Holies there was nothing in there at all since 586 B.C. The only thing in the Holy of Holies was a big fire pan. The Ark of the Covenant is still gone. Only the High Priest went back there. Only the High Priest knew what was back there. And the High Priest would never tell the people what was back there. Every Yom Kippur when he went in there with blood they thought he was going in there to sprinkle the what? It wasn't there. It hadn't been there since 586 B.C. It's an empty room. And from 586 B.C. until the time of Christ they were carrying on a fraud. Every Yom Kippur going into the Holy of Holies with blood and throwing it on the fire pan so that it would make a lot of smoke. And then he would come out and he'd take the little lamb and cut its throat and get the blood and do all the things but there was no Holy of Holies. There was no Ark of the Covenant. There was nothing there. So where was it? Where did our Ark of the Covenant go? And where is our Ark of the Covenant? And do we have relationship to our Ark of the Covenant which is now in spiritual community in the Kingdom of God in the Temple of the Holy Lord who sits on his throne and Jesus Christ at his right hand. On the day Christ arose from the dead the new Temple was not in Jerusalem any longer it was in Heaven. And our Ark of the Covenant sits at the right hand of God. He is our Deliverer from sin. With that background I'm going to read the first four verses of this chapter and I want it to sink in and I'm going to take the rest of my time reading passages because I'll do the rest of this next week. God who at various times and in different ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom he has also made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory the expressed image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high where did he go? when he went back to the Father? where did he go? when he ascended from the Mount of Olives taken up into the clouds where did he go? where did our Ark of the Covenant go in order that it might remain there for our redemption until to which we are redeemed it sits at the right hand of the Father it is no longer in a physical temple it is no longer on the earth it is now in the spiritual temple of God where God the Father sits on his throne and Christ the redeeming Savior at his right hand making intercession for us so having become so much better than the angels as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they for to which of the angels did he ever say? now look at what's happening the Ark of the Covenant is in heaven the temple of God is in heaven our spiritual home is in heaven today we sit according to the book of Ephesians in heavenly places with Christ Jesus question when did you go to heaven? when did you go to heaven? the day you were saved hey you are not your own you have been brought with a price therefore glorify God in your body which belongs to him where do we sit now according to the book of Ephesians? he says we are sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ladies and gentlemen we're not waiting to go to heaven we're just waiting for these old bodies to get out of the way we're waiting for our physical tabernacle to fall do you remember what Paul said to the Corinthian church? in the second letter when he said don't you know that we have a house in heaven made by God not made by hands eternal in the heavens don't you know that you already have a house there? don't you know that Christ Jesus is building your home? don't you know that on the day you were saved Christ started building your house? and one of these days either by one of two means of rapture now let me tell you something folks death is as much rapture as rapture is rapture because if in the rapture we are snatched away to him in the clouds at death we are snatched away into his eternal hands for the second letter to the Corinthian church says to be absent from the body is to be where? where? where? where in heaven? at the right hand of God you're in the tabernacle you're in the temple of heaven to be absent from the body is to be with the ark of the covenant with Jesus Christ now when you get to chapter 9 hang on and I think I do chapter 7 and 8 I don't get to do chapter 9 but when you get to chapter 9 it starts talking about the eternal temple in heaven where the ark of the covenant Jesus Christ is constantly there for eternity and making intercession for us and so now we're getting to the spot where God is getting ready to tell you something about his son and I want you to listen to what he says he is going to start identifying the supremacy of Christ how supreme is Christ and what is his supremacy listen to what he says verse 5 for to which of the angels did he ever say you are my son today I have begotten you to which of the angels did he ever say that and again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son verse 6 but when he again brings the firstborn into the world he says let all the angels of God worship him and of the angels he said who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire but to the son now watch what he is getting ready to say he is getting ready to magnify Jesus Christ this is God the father speaking through the book of Hebrews but to the son your throne oh God is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is a scepter of your kingdom you have loved righteousness and hated unrighteousness therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions and you Lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands they will perish but you will remain and they will all grow old like a garment like a cloak you will fold them up and they will be changed but you are the same and your years will not fail but to which of the angels did he ever say sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool now he has just got through telling you who Jesus is he is identifying the supremacy of Jesus Christ and he is telling us that Jesus Christ is the son of eternal God and as John 3.16 says so simply but so eloquently for God so loved the world you and me that he gave you didn't pay for it you can't buy it you don't pay for a gift a gift is free he gave the only one one of a kind the only child of a kind God so loved the world that he gave the only son of a kind that whosoever would put belief in him will never perish but have everlasting life in the temple of God in the Holy of Holies behind the veil that's where you want to go sweet iron prayer great song the last verse is a great verse says sweet iron prayer sweet iron prayer may I thy consolation bear and from Mt. Pisgah's lofty heights that doesn't mean a thing to you I view my home now before Moses died the children of Israel were all gathered in the valley of Ammon Moses and Joshua and the leaders were up on Mt. Pisgah and God said to Moses Moses look over into the promised land that I'm going to give to your people and my people where you will not go because you disobeyed me when you struck the rock and didn't speak to it Moses I want you to look over and view your home but you will not go there now this song is talking about that mountain and from Mt. Pisgah's lofty heights I view my home and take my flight now watch the next word this veil of flesh I drop and rise to gain the everlasting prize and shout while soaring through the air farewell, farewell sweet our prayer see folks the book of Hebrews is telling you where we're going to live forever the book of Hebrews is going to tell you why you're going to get there the book of Hebrews the book of Hebrews is going to tell us who all is there with us in fact do you know that there are only 5 groups of people who will be with you in heaven did you know that I don't want to jump ahead to Jimmy's thought but in chapter 12 the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us the 5 groups he starts off and says a myriad of angels multitudes upon multitudes upon multitudes of angels and the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven who's that that's us that's us the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven and to Jesus Christ the architect of our faith and to saints of the old testament whose lives by faith are under the throne do you remember what chapter 11 said and by faith Abraham and by faith Noah and by faith and by faith and by faith these are the ones who are under the throne that's 4 of them folks angels church of the firstborn Jesus Christ old testament saints and God that's it you want to know who you're going to live with in heaven those 5 groups of people angels us Jesus Christ old testament saints by faith and eternal God that's all that's going to be in heaven that is a very exclusive place folks and you can only get there by trusting in the ark of the covenant who was taken there on the day that he was crucified on a cross lifted out of the tomb by the power of the Holy Spirit of God and said to Mary Mary don't keep clenching onto my feet I must go to my father and to your father now I close this to get ready for next week chapter 2 are these angels not ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation do you understand that all of the angels are sent by God to us have you ever had an angel show up in fact the scripture tells us to be very careful because we don't know when we may entertain an angel unaware angels are all around us folks I was driving down the highway one day and we were moving along at a pretty good clip and all of a sudden the car in front of me just absolutely stopped and I was doing 65 miles an hour and I was about that far from its bumper and I hit the brakes and something hit my car and my car came to a dead stop no tires screeching no rubber burning and the car stopped and I am persuaded that an angel stepped in between my car and the car in front of me and that angel took my car and stopped it I am persuaded that an angel saved my life that day you have too now look at verse 1 in chapter 2 therefore when you see a therefore what do you do you stop and see what it is there for ok therefore but all of this stuff about these angels therefore since you know all this stuff about the angels we must give more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away now this is losing your salvation this is losing your fire there was a British pastor who went to visit one of his really dedicated members who had not been attending for several months and he walked into his home and he didn't say a word he just walked over to him and hugged him and the gentleman knew how much his pastor loved him and he also knew how delinquent he had been and he was embarrassed in the presence of his pastor because he had been so delinquent and the pastor didn't say a word he just hugged him and he walked over to the fireplace where a coal of fire was burning and he took the tongs and he reached into the fire and he took out one piece of coal and he put it on the hearth and he went over and sat down and he and the member watched that burning coal of fire turn to coal coal gray to which the member said to the pastor, pastor I understand I have taken myself out of the fire and I have grown coal in my spiritual life and pastor I want you to know I'm coming back and I will once again be on fire for the Lord. This is the word here therefore we must give more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest they drift away For the word spoken through angels proved steadfast in every transgression and disobedience received a just reward what's he talking about here and the word spoken through angels I thought the word was spoken through God what's he talking about here are you aware of the fact that when Moses received the Torah on the mount of Sinai that that law was given to him by angels I challenge you to go back and read the story in the book of Deuteronomy the law was given to Moses by angels and the law that was given to Moses by angels was the law that later on said how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed by those who heard him God bearing witness both with sin signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own word Moses received the law from angels do you remember what the law says in Deuteronomy 32 cursed is every person who does not keep every word of this book I can't even keep 10 can you 10 commandments and yet there are 613 commandments in the Torah and cursed is every person who does not keep every commandment in the Torah in the law do you understand what the word cursed means that means totally and inequivocably separated from God so therefore we had to have something that took that away and what took it away was the redeeming sacrificial death of Jesus Christ the Lord so much so that we are going to come to understand that everything is under subjection to Jesus Christ and that we are under his command and leadership and today while we sit here we are also sitting together with him in heavenly places with Christ Jesus and we today are in heaven waiting to wit the redemption of our bodies when he shall call us to come home even so Lord Jesus come quickly now in chapter 2 next week he is going to continue talking about some angels but he is also going to tell you how he fitted Christ for his sacrificial work he is going to tell you how he fit Christ for his sacrificial work for your redemption and for my redemption he does not give this to angels he fits only Christ lest by fitness I desire we have to be fit and God is the one who fits us for eternal life so next week when we come together we are going to look a little bit at the fact that Jesus who was made a little bit lower than the angels but was crowned with suffering of death and glory and honor and by the grace of God he was able to take the taste of death for everyone and you and I do not need to die for the sins of our faith he dies for us so in chapter 2 next week he is going to continue telling us how he has made Christ Jesus fit for our redemption great song that says not by fitness I desire but through Christ I have the fire so we are fit through Christ Jesus what Hebrews does that sound like Matthew Mark or Luke does that sound like Paul does Hebrews sound like anybody you have ever read in the 66 books no it has the flowery three things it has the story of eschatology how God set up heaven for us it has the story of how he is going to continue us in preparation for that eschatology in heaven and it is going to tell us how he will see to it that we are fit for heaven when we get there not by works of righteousness which I have done but according to his spirit has he saved me by the washing and the regeneration of my soul by his spirit it is a great study in Hebrews come back next week and we will see what happens in chapter 2 shall we pray Father God thank you for the book of Hebrews difficult yes sometimes misunderstood yes sometimes worried about what is going to happen yes but always assured that God the father in his eternal kingdom has everything within his hand given to his beloved son who is better than angels higher than angels more important than the angels and given to his son our redemptive life and through him we have life in his death and we thank you for that and we praise you and glorify you in the name of him who said I am the way I am the truth and I am the life and no man comes to the father except he comes through me blessed Jesus you are our redeemer and we praise you to the eternities of eternities within the veil where God the father sits and you at his right hand making intercession for us for our daily needs and for that we give you great praise and honor and glory and we do it in your name amen see you next week