Participants: Ty Gibson, James Rafferty
Series Code: BOTB
Program Code: BOTB00001B
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00:01 Welcome back to our studies on the book of Hebrews, James
00:03 let's develop a little more the key themes 00:06 that we see in the book of Hebrews. 00:08 The main overarching themes, we've noticed, are, first of all 00:14 the book of Hebrews has a relational theme, so let's 00:16 just flush that out a little bit more. 00:18 What is it that we see in the book of Hebrews that 00:22 would speak to us in relational language? 00:24 Well relationship jumps right out at me Ty, in the very first 00:27 verse God says "at sundry times and in divers manners 00:29 He spoke unto us in time past unto the fathers 00:34 by the prophets. " What I am seeing here is that immediately 00:37 we see that God wants to speak to us, 00:39 God wants to talk to us, He's a communicator, 00:42 And relationship is all about communication. 00:44 Lack of relationship is all about the 00:47 failure of communication, break down of communication. 00:49 So God says, here in verse 1 of Hebrews, chapter 1 has 00:53 always wanted to speak to us, He has always been 00:56 speaking to us, He's always been communicating to us. 00:58 Now in these last days He sent His son to communicate 01:02 to us, that is, to me, the essences of a relationship 01:06 is that communication. 01:07 Jesus, in John 15:15, highlighted this when He said, 01:12 "No longer do I call you my servants, because the servant 01:16 does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you 01:20 my friends because everything that I hear from My Father, 01:23 I make known to you. " 01:24 That's a communication statement, Jesus says I came 01:26 all the way from heaven to earth on a communication venture 01:30 I'm here to communicate with you directly from the Father 01:34 to you, everything He tells me, everything that I understand, 01:38 I'm going to bring to you because I want to draw you 01:41 into something more than servant hood, I want to 01:43 draw you into a friendship with Myself and with My Father. 01:46 And this is meaningful because even from the very beginning 01:49 the inception of sin, we find ourselves as human beings, 01:52 pulling away from God and not communicating with Him, we had 01:55 this relationship, it says there in Genesis, in the cool 01:58 of the day God came into the garden, He was looking for us, 02:01 we were hiding from Him in fear. 02:03 He's was communicating to us, we weren't communicating to Him. 02:07 I even, in personal relationship Ty, with my wife, I find that 02:09 when we get into an argument, disagreement, or something like 02:11 this, I find myself shutting down, I find myself 02:14 and it's a male thing perhaps, but I find myself claming 02:17 up, the silent, you know, mode. 02:19 And my wife is the one that pursues, my wife is the one who 02:22 wants to open up, she wants to communicate with me. 02:24 And this is what we see God doing in the book of Hebrews. 02:28 He's opening up this communication. 02:30 And He is speaking in this language, let me just move 02:32 through a few verses here. 02:33 Through out the book He is speaking in this language 02:36 that I think is very relational. 02:37 For example, Hebrews 2, "Pay attention to Me, don't let Me 02:40 slip, don't let me drift away, don't neglect me," 02:43 Hebrews 3, "Consider me, don't depart or turn away from me," 02:46 Hebrews 4, "Labor with me, hold fast to me, come boldly to me," 02:49 Hebrew 6 "move on with me, be diligent toward me. " 02:52 Hebrews 7, "Come to me, I live for you. " 02:54 Hebrews 8, "I'm yours your mine, know me. " 02:57 Hebrews 10, "draw near to me, hold fast to me, consider me, 02:59 don't forsake me, fellowship even more with me. " 03:02 Hebrews 12, "Run with me, look to me, consider me. " 03:04 Hebrews 13, "I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. " 03:09 "I'll be there to help you. " 03:10 All of this is relational terminology, 03:12 relationship language, and it's so emphatic coming from Paul. 03:16 It's so different, but it makes sense because Paul was changed, 03:20 when he encountered Christ pursuing him. 03:23 He sees that as the key to helping the Hebrews, the Hebrew 03:26 mindset, of being changed from this doctrinal emphases 03:29 of belief to this relational experience. 03:31 Excellent, isn't it? that in the book of Hebrews we see that God 03:36 initiates the relationship with human beings, with us. 03:40 And He gets as intimate as you can possibly get. 03:43 This intimacy really reaches it's climax in one of the main 03:49 points of Hebrews, and that is the incarnation. 03:52 I mean you can't get any closer, you can't get any more intimate 03:56 than God has gotten with us, in the person of Jesus Christ. 04:00 He doesn't stay in the heavens. 04:02 Distant, far away, shouting messages to us. 04:07 But according to the book of Hebrews, 04:10 God came up close and personal. 04:12 He actually entered human history in the flesh. 04:17 Jesus is One who become a member of the human race. 04:22 So He, I love one version James, that I know it is a paraphrase, 04:28 but it really is accurate to the Hebrew language in John 04:34 Chapter 1 were it says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt 04:38 among us," the Greek says, He tabernacled among us and 04:41 one version translate says, God moved into the neighborhood. 04:44 In other words, God came very close and intimate, He wants 04:50 enter a relationship with us. 04:51 Christianity and the spirituality that the Bible in 04:54 the book of Hebrews call us to isn't merely an intellectual 04:59 gathering of academic information. 05:02 God is a person, He is a personal being and He is 05:05 initiating a relationship with us through the Word of God 05:10 and through Jesus Christ. 05:11 Absolutely, in fact if you look at this Ty, and I really love 05:14 the book of Hebrews in this context, because the book of 05:17 Hebrews, if it is talking about relationship then it's talking 05:20 in this relational language of love. 05:22 And when you are talking about that in Hebrews 2, you are 05:25 talking about Christ becoming one with the human family, 05:27 you are talking a physical connection. 05:29 My wife and I have been really blessed in our own marriage, 05:32 by understanding there are different languages of love. 05:35 I know when I first married my wife, Rise, I told her 05:38 I said now I am going to make sure you know that I love you, 05:41 because I am going to vacuum the home and I'm going to clean 05:44 the bathrooms, I'm going to do things for you. 05:46 And that is speaking in a language of service, 05:48 acts of service. 05:49 There are these five love languages, and that love 05:52 language, though it was mine and is mine, I love to come 05:56 home to a clean house, I love to come home where 05:57 everything's in order, there's dinner on the table, 05:59 everything's just set up. 06:00 That's you love me, my wife loves me, but that was not 06:04 my wife's love language. 06:05 No indeed not, so I'm knocking myself out just cleaning and 06:09 doing all these acts of service, and she could feel 06:11 insecure and neglected. 06:13 Yeah, I know Rise, she wants to be touched. 06:15 Yes, that is one of her love language. 06:17 Her number one love language is quality time. 06:21 Just spending time with me, just sit down on the couch and 06:24 talk to me spend quality time. 06:26 Which is big in the book of Hebrews, especially in Chapter 4 06:29 In Hebrews, God is inviting us into a relationship with Him 06:34 that is based on actually spending quality time together. 06:39 And it is so hard for me, Okay! 06:40 I have a hard time with quality time, I'm struggling with 06:42 quality time, because it's not my natural thing. 06:44 But for God, what's interesting is that I may have a certain 06:48 love language, my wife may have another one. 06:49 God speaks them all. 06:50 And it is right here in the book of Hebrews. 06:52 Hebrews Chapter 2, you touched on it, the physical connection. 06:55 You know God has become one with the human race. 06:57 Physically connected to us forever, that's physical Okay? 07:00 Hebrews Chapter 5 you touched on that, quality time. 07:04 God wants to spend quality time with us. 07:06 consistently, continually. 07:07 Then there are three more love languages, acts of service. 07:10 Hebrews 3 talks about this acts of service. 07:12 God has built us a home, He has built us a house. 07:15 Not to mention the sacrifice of Christ which is both gift 07:19 and acts of service. 07:20 Yes both of those and that is right here in Hebrews Chapter 1. 07:22 This gift of God's love, given to us in the 07:25 person of God the Son. 07:26 And then you have, what I think is powerful 07:29 in Hebrews Chapter 11. 07:31 You have the fifth love language is words of affirmation. 07:34 Words, positive words. 07:36 You know when you look at Hebrews 11, and you count 07:40 the history of God's people, you know that those guys 07:43 all through their past, cause we see it in the Bible, 07:46 those guys weren't perfect. 07:48 They made their mistakes. 07:50 They had their failures. 07:51 And you look at that and it helps us, it encourages us 07:54 because we are humans and we make our, we have our failures. 07:57 We make mistakes or what ever, you know. 07:58 We realize that those guys were, had their moments, it encourages 08:02 us, but when you get to Hebrews 11, 08:04 and you recount the history of God's people, you know you 08:08 don't find anything there of a negative, there's nothing 08:11 mentioned about the fact that Abraham and Sara 08:14 laughed and doubted God. 08:15 Or Noah got drunk. 08:16 Or Moses killed an Egyptian. 08:17 Or David, there's none that is there. 08:20 From God's perspective the whole history is positive, 08:25 He's affirming, affirming, affirming 08:26 this is the way I see it. 08:27 You know how difficult that is in a marriage? 08:29 With your wife, with your children? 08:31 It's faith language. 08:33 It's language that is calculated to instill confidence and to 08:39 cause the person you are communicating with, to rise 08:42 to the level of your confidence and your trust and so you 08:46 read through the Old Testament and then you come to Hebrews 08:49 Chapter 11 and think are we talking about 08:51 the same people here? 08:52 Because these individuals in Hebrews Chapter 11 are spoken 08:55 of in such glowing terms as if they have never made a mistake. 09:00 God is allowing, by His own free choice, His love to cover a 09:05 multitude of sins in these people. 09:08 Some of them were real rascals. 09:10 And when God confronted them, I mean I remember when God 09:13 in the Old Testament, you know, Abraham and Sara, Sara 09:16 Abraham's lying that Sara's his wife because he is afraid 09:19 and then Abraham and Sara are told they are going to have a 09:22 child and Sara laughs. 09:23 And God comes to her and confronts her and says, Sara 09:26 your laughing and she says, NO I wasn't laughing. 09:28 So she lied. 09:29 She lies right to... Ah and she scared and God is real. 09:33 You find God to be a real person who can deal with our 09:36 imperfections, who can handle who we are, understands the 09:40 revelation of our weakness, and yet works through that and 09:43 from His perspective sees this in a whole different light. 09:46 Now this relational theme in the book of Hebrews is brought 09:49 out over and over again. 09:50 But another way I noticed it James, is with a frequent 09:54 usage of the word enter. 09:55 Yeah, well in Hebrews Chapter 4, for example, enter into My rest. 10:02 And then at the end of Hebrews Chapter 4, come or enter boldly 10:07 the throne of grace. 10:09 Which then comes out again in Chapter 6 verses 19 and 20. 10:13 Were the most spectacular invitation is given. 10:16 That we are to enter boldly behind the veil to the 10:21 Presence behind the veil. 10:22 To immediate, intimate contact with God. 10:26 And then we come to Chapter 10, of the book of Hebrews and 10:28 verse 22, we're admonished, draw near to Me, God is inviting 10:34 us, telling us come straight to Me, come near to Me. 10:38 In Chapter 12 verses 18-29, what a great climax 10:41 to the book of Hebrews. 10:42 Because Paul says, we have not come to this mountain that was 10:47 burning with fire and trembling, but rather we have come, and 10:51 then he has a series of statements that are made 10:54 indicating where we come from to, we come to God 10:58 through Jesus Christ. 10:59 We come to an innumerable company of angels, 11:03 we come to the new city of God the New Jerusalem, 11:05 and finally we come to the Presence of God 11:08 who he informs us is a God of consuming fire, but somehow 11:11 through the book of Hebrews we have now been made home, 11:15 made at home in the presence of God who is a consuming fire. 11:20 Let's not forget Hebrews 13 and verse 6, "I will never leave you 11:24 nor forsake you," actually that's a Hebrews Chapter 13 11:28 Verse 5, I'll never leave you or forsake you. 11:30 People have gone through separation, divorce, 11:32 and all of this. 11:33 And yet God says I'm going to stick with you. 11:35 That's relationship there I'm sure. 11:36 Yeah that's amazing, it's amazing as we move through this 11:38 and we see that the God of heaven, 11:42 The Creator of all things. 11:44 I mean, we can't imagine any more lofty great thoughts. 11:49 But this very God, through the person of Jesus Christ, 11:52 has come to us and invited us into an intimate 11:56 relationship with Himself. 11:58 And that's the beginning of our launch into the book of Hebrews. 12:02 And we thank you so much for joining us. |
Revised 2014-12-17