The Activity of the Spirit in the Church, Part 57

The Activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Church Age believers, part 57.

God in His word warns us, as believers, against the perils of unbelief, and that in the strongest possible terms.

Our portion for studying the perils of unbelief will be Hebrews chapters 3 and 4.

The purpose of the book of Hebrews is to instruct Jewish believers that Judaism had been superceded by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The method employed by the Holy Spirit is to show the absolute superiority of Christ over all that had gone before.

The original audience for Hebrews was a group of Jewish Christians who had converted to Christianity years ago.

They were discouraged because they were suffering, and because they were still dealing with their sinfulness.

They were tempted to turn their back on Christ and return to the Jewish religion with its temple sacrifices for sin ,

thereby (to their way of thinking) ending the persecution they were under for being Christians.

Unlike the Gentiles, the Jews had a God-given religion that their people had followed for over a thousand years.

In addition, they were being persecuted by their former Jewish brethren.

Christian Hebrews were persecuted as transgressors of the law. Some of them were stoned to death.

Unless they renounced their faith in Jesus, and forsook the assembling of themselves together, they were not allowed to enter the Temple.

They were banished from the altar, the sacrifices, the high priest, the Temple in Jerusalem.

Our loving Father, in His mercy and grace, rushed to meet this great need by having the Holy Spirit move His servant to write this great Epistle to them.

This letter was written as an encouragement, an exhortation to persevere in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was written to rally these Jewish Christians around the absolute superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ, in particular over all that had gone before.

Hebrews encourages faithful perseverance in light of the superlative final word God has spoken in Christ.

Christ is superior to everything that went before:

The old revelation
Its angelic mediators
The first exodus (Moses and Joshua)
The entire priestly system

God’s people can have complete confidence in God’s Son, the perfect High Priest, who gives all believers full access to God.

The first subject taken up in Hebrews 1 is not our salvation or blessing, but the Person and place of God’s Son!

The fundamental truth set forth in Hebrews is that Christ Himself, the Son of God, IS God’s message, His voice to us!

The Holy Spirit inspired the writer of Hebrews to portray His eternal deity and glory; …

His real humanity; and His session at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Seven awesome ultimate things are said about the Son of God in verses 2 and 3:

1. whom He appointed heir of all things
2. through Whom also He made the world (or ages)

3. He is the radiance of God’s glory
4. He is the exact representation of His nature

5. He upholds all things by the word of His power
6. He made purification of sins

7. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.