Hebrews 1-3: A Better Way

We kick off Hebrews with a clear claim: Jesus fulfills Israel’s story and opens God’s family to all nations. We trace why he is greater than angels and Moses, why drifting is dangerous, and how soft hearts learn God’s ways through Scripture and daily trust.

• season frame of building a kingdom through Jesus’ fulfillment
• why Hebrews addresses Jewish-Gentile tensions
• Jesus’ supremacy over angels and creation
• a great salvation confirmed by witnesses and the Spirit
• the Son made lower, suffering to break the fear of death
• Jesus as merciful and faithful high priest
• Christ greater than Moses and over God’s house
• warning from Psalm 95 against hard hearts
• practical call to daily encouragement and attentiveness
• learning God’s ways to resist drift and unbelief

At outloudbible.com, you can find free resources to help you study the Bible. And while you’re there, send us a message to say hi, or start a conversation about having us at your church or event. 

If Outloud Bible has been a valuable part of your understanding of the Bible, please consider supporting the ministry by visiting outloudbible.com.

Chapters

• 0:22 Welcome And Series Setup
• 0:49 Building A Kingdom Season Context
• 1:15 Why Hebrews And What’s At Stake
• 2:50 Jews, Gentiles, And A Bigger Family
• 4:39 Jesus Fulfills, Not Cancels
• 5:15 How To Read Hebrews Well
• 6:46 Hebrews 1: Jesus Above Angels
• 8:56 Hebrews 2: Great Salvation And Suffering King
• 12:04 Hebrews 3: Greater Than Moses, Guard Your Heart
• 14:27 Apply It: Know God’s Ways Today

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Outloud Bible Project Podcast. My name is Mike, and I'm so glad you've decided to spend some time this way. Maybe this is one of your first times in the podcast. Maybe you found out about us at one of our live Out Loud Bible experiences at a church. If that's the case, welcome. And uh maybe you've been around a little bit longer, in which case, hey, thank you for your continued joining me in this conversation here as we read through the Bible out loud. Really hits different, doesn't it? Also, if you've been with us for a while, you'll know that we're in between books. We're going to start a new book today. We're in a season of the podcast called Building a Kingdom. We started in the book of Matthew, where we saw Jesus bringing about a new way of thinking as he was establishing God's kingdom, and it was not what people expected. And then we read some of Paul's letters to some of his proteges as he was passing the baton to them to build the kingdom in the calling that God had given them. And today we're continuing on with the book of Hebrews. Now we don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews specifically. It doesn't say. Therefore, it's probably not Paul, because Paul was pretty clear in every letter that he wrote that it was him writing. This was probably another church leader at the time. Paul probably knew this guy. We don't know for sure, but we do know that he's addressing an issue that was very common in the time of Paul and the other church leaders, with this new church that Jesus had established that was still trying to figure out how to function and trying to figure out, okay, what is true? What do we need to do? Because one of the big problems was that the Jews had been so used to the Jewish people being God's people, that when God tore down the curtain and opened up access to him for all people, all the Gentiles, all the nations, and that Jesus was building this church with everyone, not just the Jews, that was tough to swallow for the Jews. And I I gotta admit, I can see where they're coming from for literally thousands of years, the entire Old Testament. The Jews had been God's people. God had rejected the other nations, going back to the time of Abraham, rejected all the other nations and said, okay, I'm going to start a new nation with my people. And that was the line of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, and that's Israel. And they were God's people. The rest of the world really had no hope, as far as anyone knew, that they could ever be right with God again. Closeness with the one true God was basically reserved for the Jews, the Israelites. That's as far as they knew. And so when Jesus entered the scene, yes, as a Jew, and yes, claiming to be the Messiah, but when he was saying and doing things that did not line up with what they expected the Messiah to be saying and doing, including offering God's love and forgiveness to people outside of the Jewish culture, what? That just didn't line up. Not to mention when he died, resurrected, and ascended, and started a church that was involving 3,000 people from around the world, and sending Paul out to be a missionary to the Gentiles to tell them that, hey, God's opening up his family for you to be adopted into it as well. Can you imagine? The Jews were like, oh, hold on, hold on, wait, what? Hold on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This can't be right. There's no way that God's allowing everybody of all the nations to be like a Jew. That what no, we were circumcised. We have our traditions and we have our ways of doing things, and they're not doing any of this stuff. No, no, they don't know our scriptures, they don't know our laws. No, no, hold on. Okay, fine, fine. I get it. If maybe maybe they can be accepted too, but they have to start living like way the way we've been living, right? They have to kind of know our laws and they have to know our traditions, and and that makes sense, right? Maybe they can be right with God if they start doing more of the things that we've been doing for thousands of years. Like God's not going to just throw all that stuff out just because, you know, Jesus came and started a church, right? Right? And so the author of Hebrews here wrote this letter to the Hebrews, the Israelites, the Jews, with a message of, no, no, Jesus came as a fulfillment to put to bed all of the things that you have been resting on for thousands of years, not to cancel them out, but to fulfill them and now move on to something greater than what you have been steeped in in your culture and in your traditions. This is not rejecting those things. It's recognizing that Jesus is the greater version of everything that you have been holding on to up to this point. So, how do we get the most out of reading this book of Hebrews? Assuming that we're not rejecting Jesus as our Savior and we're not stuck in the laws and the traditions of the Torah, right? What do we do? Well, Hebrews is a good reminder to keep the most important things the most important things. Hebrews also, in its attempt to try to persuade Jews to see things through the lens of Jesus and the church, uses a lot of Old Testament references. So we can actually take this as an opportunity to recognize that our faith today is firmly rooted throughout Scripture, Old Testament and New. And finally, we can let this book highlight some ways that we may be stuck in an old way of thinking and how we may need to recognize what Jesus is doing and how we may need to change the way we think in order to follow him through it. Hebrews is a fantastic book. It's one of my favorites. I feel like I say that a lot. Uh no, but it really is. It actually kind of reads like a sermon. It kind of plays like a pastor giving a message using Old Testament references and using examples, and it's something that we can really kind of relate to, even in the modern church, because we're generally familiar with hearing sermons, and this is very similar to that. So feel free to take notes. If you need to pause and write something down or pause and think about something, do that. We have the luxury with the podcast. And uh, I think we're in for a real treat as we unpack the book of Hebrews over the next few episodes. So let's start, of course, in Hebrews chapter one and we'll go through chapter three today. This is the New English translation. After God spoke long ago, in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. The Son is the radiance of his glory, and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, and thus he became so far better than the angels, as he has inherited a name superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son, today I've fathered you. And in another place he says, I will be his father, and he will be my son. But when he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says, Let all the angels of God worship him. And he says, Of the angels, he makes his angels wins and his ministers a flame of fire, but of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You've loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, so God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing. And you founded the earth in the beginning, Lord, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They'll perish, but you continue, and they'll all grow old like a garment, and like a robe you'll fold them up, and like a garment they'll be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never run out. But to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who will inherit salvation? Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we've heard so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken through angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, while God confirmed their witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. For he didn't put the world to come, about which we're speaking, under the control of angels. Instead, someone testified somewhere, which by the way, Hebrews does that a lot. I I like just it says somewhere. Like I can't be bothered with references right now. In this case, we're talking about Psalm 8, if you want to go read it. This is where he quotes. But anyway, verse 6 of chapter 2. Instead, someone testified somewhere. What is man that you think of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him lower than the angels for a little while, you crowned him with glory and honor, you put all things under his control. For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. And at present we don't yet see all things under his control, but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God's grace he would experience death on behalf of everyone, for it was fitting to him, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For indeed, he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, and so he's not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brothers in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. And again, he says, I will be confident in him, and again, here I am with the children God has given me. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For surely his concern is not for angels, but he's concerned for Abraham's descendants, and therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself suffered when he was tempted, he's able to help those who are tempted. And therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, who is faithful to the one who God appointed him, as Moses was also in God's house, for he's come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. We are of his house, if in fact we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope we take pride in. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and this is in Psalm ninety five, oh that to day you would listen as he speaks. Don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of testing in the wilderness. There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years. Therefore I became provoked at that generation and said, Their hearts are always wandering, and they have not known my ways. As I swore in my anger, they will never enter my rest. See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes the living God, but exhort one another each day as long as it's called today, that none of you may become hardened by sin's deception. For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence firm until the end. As it says, Oh that today you would listen as he speaks, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership? And against whom was God provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear they would never enter his rest except those who were disobedient? So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. That's where we'll pause today. Pretty compelling start, don't you think? I think that last paragraph is what we need to be doing in light of this. See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes the living God. Now, let's not just relegate that to those unbelievers. Okay, we also can have an unbelieving heart that forsakes God, even though we've been following him. Just like he said, the people who hardened their hearts were the God's people, the people who came out of Egypt, the ones he saved, the ones he rescued. But what happened? They hardened their hearts. They're always wandering, and they've not known my ways. Our hearts can be hardened. We can allow our hearts to be hardened through traumas of the past, through unmet expectations, through deferred hope that we don't see God coming through the way we wanted him to come through. This hardens our hearts, and then we end up wandering. Our hearts end up wandering because we're looking for something that God has already promised, but we've rejected it coming from him in his timing and his way. That's why it's so important for us to know his ways, as he says in verse 10. We need to know God's ways. How do we know? By reading the Bible. Let's see how he has acted with his people and with, frankly, people who are not his people throughout the generations so we get to know him, so that when we can recognize similar patterns in our own life, when we walk through similar situations that we read about in his word, when we read things and comforts and wisdom that he shares in his word, that's how we get to know, okay, this is how God works, and it's not our ways, it's not the way we work, it's not the way we expect, it's not even necessarily the way we want. But it's him and it's his ways. We get to know his ways, then our hearts will not wander, and our hearts will not be hardened against him. You know the ways of your friends and your spouse and your kids. You know, oh yep, that's classic them. Yep. I know what they're gonna say before they even say it. In fact, I can complete their sentences. We're just so on the same page, I know exactly how they think. We say that about our friends. Can we say that about God? That's knowing his ways. And that's the thinking out loud thought for the day.