Hebrews 6:3 Part 7 Bible Teaching

Hebrews 6.3 G
December 8th 2013
Welcome – let’s pray.

Beginning this January – the first Sunday of, I would like to borrow something the LDS do that I think is very beneficial to the lives of people – have you begin to address the congregation.

Now, this will not be a testimony meeting nor will it be a topic about your thoughts on life, your family, or a topical address on some special subject like obedience or service.

This will be a five minute – FIVE MINUTE presentation on verses from the Bible where each of you will read the verse (or verses) do the research on the verse, and teach us something about the Word of God pertaining to the verse or verses chosen.

We call the place we meet the Factory for a reason – we want to churn out believers who are equipped to serve the living God in what matters MOST – in and through His Word.

So at the back is a sign-up sheet. If you do NOT sign up I will personally make contact with you and make my case.

The thing about this that all of us will soon learn is presenting the Word of God is NOT about us – how we look, how professional we sound or any of that – its about God being known and revealed and glorified.

So there it is.

Please consider supporting this effort.

Let’s PRAY, then hear the Word set to music. Afterward we’ll take a few minutes in silence to reflect upon our relationship, our walk with the Lord, and when we come back, we’ll continue on with John 5 beginning at verse 23.

So, in an effort to understand the resurrection better – which the writer of Hebrews lists as a Milk topic for believers to understand before pursuing what he calls “perfection,” we have chosen to examine then when the Bible says Jesus should return – because, as we showed last week, when Jesus returns that will initiate the second phase of the first of two general resurrections – the resurrection of the just.

Once this resurrection is complete there will follow what we call the second resurrection, OR the resurrection of the damned.

Many believers have been waiting for Jesus to return to initiate the first resurrection but they do this mistakenly as He – being the first-fruits of them that slept – initiated the first resurrection when He rose after three days in the grave.

Shortly thereafter we read in Matthew that others also rose from the dead.

So it was Jesus rising from the dead that ignited the First Resurrection.

In actuality, what most Christians are waiting for is the second phase of the first resurrection which will occur when Jesus returns.

It is this second phase of the First Resurrections we are examining to see if the Bible tells us when He should return.

Once we have that under our belt, I propose that we will then understand resurrection far more clearly . . . and then let it lie as we then focus (as “Meat Eating” believers) on moving “on toward perfection.”

Now, when it comes to teaching the Bible there is an approach that says we first:

Observe what is being said, then we interpret what is said, and then we give what is being said application to our lives.

It’s a great model to use when teaching the world.

But when it comes to really learning what the Bible is saying we might choose to get a little more specific in these approaches.

We might ask:

Who is the writer?
Where is he writing from?
Who is the audience?
Why is he writing to them?
What is the surrounding situation – (the context)?
What is occurring in the secular world around the time the word was written?
And perhaps most importantly, what would the words being written mean to the recipients at that time.

Let me repeat that last one:

“What would the words being written mean to the recipients at that time?”

Often we carry around the idea that the Bible (especially the New Testament) was first written to us – readers and believers today, that at the time it was composed by the Apostles the people receiving it didn’t really understand what was being said – since they didn’t have many of the other epistles or gospels to compare them to.

If this is what you have believed I would challenge you to rethink this perspective.

Instead, the letters written were to the believers of that day, encouraging and instructing them FIRST.

Therefore the primary application was to them and their needs, their understanding, and their Christian walk with secondary and tertiary application to later generations like ours.

If we read any other way we are quite likely to misinterpret what was being said and then make the mistake of thinking the text has meaning or application in areas and ways that it doesn’t.

Admittedly, the Word of God IS the living word, and I am convinced that even though the purpose for passages being written back then often don’t have the same application to us in our day, they can be applied to believers now with tremendous – even equal – significance.

For example, Jesus employs a lot of imagery in His teachings that borrow heavily from an extremely agrestic community. Lots of stories and illustrations about planting, harvesting, reaping and sowing.

To a city dweller the imagery may not carry the same weight, but then again, it might bear more, revealing things to the mind of someone NOT familiar with the processes of agriculture in ways that would go unnoticed by those who are – and of course, vice versa.

One of the beauties of the living word.

My point, then, is NOT that we lose benefit because we are not part of the original audience – the Word is Living – but when it comes to theology or issues like, “When does the Bible say Jesus should return,” we HAVE to include in our examination as many critical bits of information as possible in order to really comprehend what was being said and why.

Okay . . . so what we are going to do is break our study down on “When the Bible says Jesus should return” by looking at what specific SPEAKERS in scripture have said on the subject.

We are going to start with what Jesus said Himself – both in the Gospel’s and in Revelation.

Then we will examine what Jesus said about three specific areas related to His return:

The Last Days
Judgment, and
the End of the World.

Then we’ll examine what the apostles said,
(and when I say apostles I mean Peter, Paul, John the Beloved and James) – in that order.

Then we are going to examine the Book of Hebrews and see what the writer there had to say about when Jesus should return, and then we will do a sort of time-line that shows how the New Testament actually includes for us an increasing imminence relative to Christ’s return (which I mentioned last week).

In the final segment I’ll provide a summary of all evidences which clearly articulate that the Bible tells us when Jesus should return.

So let’s go.

We’ll begin by examining the BIG discourses the Lord gave in what we say are the synoptic accounts found in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.

I am going to use Matthew 24 as the essential narrative and add to it from the other accounts of Mark and Luke if necessary.

Now, Matthew chapter 24 takes place when the Lord and His disciples are sitting on the Mount of Olives.

Want to read the Lord’s own description of when He is going to return?

Matthew 24. (in fact turn there and mark it because we are going to read it).

But in order to really get the full picture of this chapter we have to start back three chapters (in Matthew 21).

It was here that Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Remember that?

He rode in on the donkey who had never been ridden upon and people waved psalm braches and threw down their coats and cried, “hosanna” to the Lord.

Well after entering into this historic City of David He went straight to the temple.

And when He got there He drove out the money changers, and then over-turned the tables.

This was incendiary behavior, and I believe He did it to stoke the fires of the evil that burned within the leadership of His day.

Then with His disciples He retreated to Bethany.

Remember?

The next day He came back into the city (from Bethany) and do you remember what He saw?

A beautiful leafy fig tree which, (from a distance) had the appearance of really being a fruit bearer, but when the Lord got closer He found that it actually bore no fruit at all (a picture of the Nation of Israel) and so He cursed it, and to the amazement of the disciples it immediately began to wither.

From there Jesus returns back to the Temple mount and began the most railing accusations against the Jewish religious leaders imaginable.

His words compose chapter 21-23 of Matthew for us.

In these chapters He calls them:

“hypocrites, a generation of vipers, blind guides, serpents and a bunch of other utter imprecations.” All through these two chapters Jesus is telling them essentially that they are done for.

Chapter 23 ends with Jesus saying to those Jews (beginning at verse 35):

“That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Unquestionably, when Jesus tells them, “Your house is left unto you desolate,” the “house” was not only the very temple that Jesus stood in but EVERYTHING that represented the Nation called Judaic – their culture there in Jerusalem, genealogies, land, nation, priesthood, their way of life – all of it – left desolate.

All of this brings us to the contents of Matthew chapter 24.

So let’s now turn to it and see what happens next.

Matthew 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

The Lord had just laid some tremendous and horrible predictions out against the Nation of Israel.

For some reason the disciples decided to point out the grandeur of the architecture of the temple to Him at this time.

Maybe they were trying to change the subject, maybe as a means to indirectly say, “You know Lord, we believe all you said in the temple today but . . . but just look at the magnificence of the Temple! ”

Or maybe they were just trying to divert His energies to something more positive (bleech).

Whatever the reason, (verse 2)

2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

In my opinion this must have been the icing on the cake for the disciples as Jesus was really making everything seem pretty dismal and futile.

From outside the temple they traveled to the Mount of Olives, which would have given them the most magnificent view of the whole city of Jerusalem.

I would bet they were pretty solemn and quiet after the succession of these events. I mean, traveling with Jesus in the early years was probably fun, right?

He was changing water into wine, and healing people right and left, and when they ran out of food He reproduced fish and bread, and when their family members got sick He healed them.

But in the past few days He ripped the temple thieves apart, cursed a beautiful fig tree (whicht immediately withered), threw down some really ugly imprecations on the Jewish leaders (of whom the disciples at this point were still terrified) and now He said the temple mount (which was a marvel to them) was going to be “thrown down.”

The party was ending, folks. So I’m guessing the mood was somber. (verse 3)

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately (Mark tells us it was only Peter, James, John and Andrew, by the way).

Anyway these four came to Jesus and they essentially asked the Lord three questions.

Ready? Now remember all that has happened and all that Jesus has said (and the tone He has been taking) because they are what created these specific questions.

Here they are: “Jesus . . .

Tell us, when shall these things be?
and what shall be the sign of thy coming,
and of the end of the world?

Now, we are seeking to know the answer to the second question here, aren’t we –

“and what shall be the sign of thy coming?

But in order to get to it we have to examine questions 1 and 3 too.

I am of the opinion that all three questions are interrelated. In fact, I believe they are all asking the same thing – when?

Some people believe the disciples were asking different questions here that are not related. I disagree.

Now listen closely – the disciples knew that in the Old Testament, when GOD “brought judgment upon a nation” the prophets often spoke of Him as having come down and executing His wrath and judgment upon them.

And while we probably do not have all that Jesus told these disciples about His coming return we can see they associated His current prophecies of the coming judgment upon the nation with both His RETURN and the END of their WORLD.
(not the end of the World and I’ll explain why in a minute).

So the four disciples asked the Lord three questions that in my opinion were all interrelated:

Tell us, when shall these things be?
and what shall be the sign of thy coming,
and of the end of the world?

Now hang with me here. They had heard Jesus say that “the nation would be laid desolate,” and that “the grand temple toppled to the ground,” that this would be the end of “their world,” and that all of it would happen in “this generation.”

When disciples ask Jesus (in the King James) and when “will be the end of the world,” they were asking “when will all of this happen which would put an end to the world as we know it.”

I think we can understand this on some level – or at least through the unfortunate lives of people as described in country songs.

You know, a person discovers their spouse is leaving them, that their house is being foreclosed upon, that they have been fired from their job and then their dog dies – all on the same day!

They might title such a song:

“The end of my world,” right?

This is what the disciples wanted to know of the Lord – when is all of WHAT YOU HAVE DESCRIBED gonna happen to US?
(and not when is the end of the earth).

If they were asking when the “end of the world” (earth) was going to occur we would read in the Greek that they would have asked, “and when is “the end of the COSMOS.”

That is the Greek word for world (as in, earth).

But that isn’t what they asked! Instead they asked Him “and when is the end of the “age” – again, that Greek word meanings a period of time, and in this case, the apostles wanted to know when the end of their Age was coming. The end when all things Jewish, as they knew it, would be “left desolate,” the end when the “temple would be brought down,” “when would judgment fall on the Nation,” which was when He would return to render such judgment?”

(beat)

My friends, Matthew 24 (and the Mark and Luke accounts of the same information) is Jesus answer to them and these specific questions.

IF . . . (and when) we are able to recognize this we will take a giant step toward embracing a clearer eschatological picture of things.

As I mentioned last week, Jesus words here to the disciples, if we accept that He was born in 4 or 3 AD, were spoken around 30 AD.

We also mentioned that the accepted length of a biblical generation would be forty years.

So if we take 30 AD when Jesus promised that “all of these things will happen within this generation,” (both to the Jews at the temple in Matthew 23:36 and then to His disciples here in Matthew 24:34) and add the full forty years of a generation, we have 70 AD – a most important date in the annuls of biblical history because . . .

And as most of you are aware, it was in 70 AD that the Roman army, under Titus, helped accomplish what we will read here in Matthew 24 from Jesus mouth.

As an aside, we also note that the Old Testament prophet Micah also prophesied of this temple destruction, saying in Micah 3:12:

“Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.”

In George Peter Holford’s book, “The Destruction of Jerusalem,” we read:

“It is recorded in the Talmud and by Maimonedes, that Terentius Rufus, captain of the army of Titus, absolutely ploughed up the foundation of the temple with a ploughshare.”

To show God’s hand moved this destruction we read in the Jewish historian’s book, The Wars of the Jews, Flavius Josephus states that the Roman general Titus actually decided to spare the temple from destruction feeling that it was too magnificent of an edifice to destroy.

Instead, he believed that it ought to remain standing as proof of the Roman Empires success.

But one of the soldiers ignorantly threw a firebrand through a window and set the place ablaze.

Josephus says that when General Titus got word of the fire:

“He rose up in great haste and ran to the holy house in order to have a stop to the fire,” that he gave orders with, “a loud voice,” and with “his right hand gave signals to his soldiers to stop the fire,” but the normally disciplined Roman soldiers went wild and pushed to see the whole thing destroyed – first by fire.

This was God’s judgment upon the people – not Rome’s. In fact, Josephus, in his “Essential Writings,” (page 365) wrote the following:

“As Titus entered the city (September 26th AD 70) he was astonished at its strength, and especially the towers which the tyrants had abandoned. Indeed, when he saw how high and massive they were, and the size of each huge block, he exclaimed:

“Surely God was with us in the war, who brought the Jews down from their strongholds, for what could hand or engine do against these towers.”

Now, we can choose to believe that what Jesus said to His disciples and the Jews about, “all these things would happen in this generation,” that He was right, and what happened in 70 AD was the fulfillment of it . . . . OR . . . we can side with CS Lewis (and a billion other Christians), and say it hasn’t happened yet, that generation doesn’t mean generation, and still believe Matthew 24 is speaking of our day.

But note – we are FAR from being done.

Let’s go back to Matthew 24.

Now, Christians who believe that what Jesus has been describing has not yet happened use chapter 24 CONSTANTLY to describe signs of our day and age.

Frankly, it’s quite easy to read these passages and believe that they apply to our day and age.

But let’s go through them and see if they really apply to our day – or to the events of 70 AD.

In our first run through I want you to take note of WHO Jesus is directing His descriptive words to.

If these words were prophesied by our God and King for a date in our day and age why doesn’t He make this clear?

Instead, He (and the apostles) give plenty of indications He was speaking FIRST to them, and to their generation and time.

So let’s read for ourselves (beginning at verses 3 and we are going to read all the way through to verse 35:

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 “Take heed that no man deceive you.”
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end (of the age) is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christ’s, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

I know there is a lot here – questionable things – but we are going to hit on the major explanations of what verses 4-16 are saying – relative to that time and place and the 70 AD destruction.

Next week we’ll cover the remainder.

Now as we read try and remember that when Jews write they often use hyperbole, illustration, and comparisons to convey what the Holy Spirit is saying to them.

For example, Paul, in Romans 1:8 says:

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”

Does this mean, “the whole world?” Catalina Island? Logan Utah? and to the inhabitants living at the base of Mount Shasta?

No.

The whole inhabited world? I don’t think so.

But probably the established Roman empire.

FOLKS – there is a time to take the words of the Bible literally and there is a time to read them as representations or figuratively.

Literalists love to emphasize lines like the “whole world” and say it means the whole world but often their assumptions are incorrect – which, again, is why we try and ask and answer all those questions when analyzing scripture.

Okay?

Oh and one more thing. Many people today (thanks to the newly created teachings promoted by pre-tribulation fanatics like the late Chuck Smith and Hal Lindsey) but many people today believe that the end is going to be a nuclear holocaust, and that we are still awaiting an anti-Christ to pop up on the scene.
When we consider the contextual indicators the Lord provides His disciples we can clearly see that Jesus appealed to both LOCAL and ANCIENT descriptions of things and did not use language that would describe nuclear holocausts and futuristic (meaning our day) verbiage.
Alright so let’s go back and look at verses 6-14 before wrapping it up today. Instead of teaching them in a modern application sense, I am going to explain them in the sense of them occurring before 70 AD.
So Jesus says at verse 6:
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end (of the age) is not yet.

The rumors of war and difficulties for Jerusalem were rampant in and around the decades prior to 70 AD – all reasonable precursors to its inevitable destruction.

Jesus tells these men plainly:

“see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end (of the age) is not yet.”

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

We have recorded history of all of these terrors existing prior to the destruction of Israel – even major and devastating earthquakes. Most futurists glom onto “nation shall rise against nation,” as evidence that Jesus was NOT speaking of 70 AD but ours, but the thing is the Greek word the King James Translators translated into nations is Ethnos – a word where we get ethnicities, and that it a better description of the verse, rather than entire nations.

In verse 8 Jesus says:

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

See how He is mercifully describing for them a chronology to look for and be aware of – a real one, with a real date waiting within that generation?

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations (ethnicities) for my name’s sake.

The Romans (as well as other ethnicities were not, to say the least, happy with Jews in Jerusalem (to put it mildly).

Verse 10-12 are all validated by Josephus as conditions existing in Jerusalem prior to 70 AD, as the Jews turned on each other, many false Christ’s a prophets arose and many of the Christian elect were deceived.

In fact, the book of Hebrews was written to help the Jewish Saints avoid apostasy and to encourage all to hang on to the end.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Jesus then gives them each a promise here:

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

In my opinion this is speaking of being saved from utter physical destruction that was coming as it is said NOT ONE Christian perished in the destruction but escaped to Pella by means we will discuss next week.

Verse fourteen is thought to be the crowning glory for futurists and biblical literalists as it says:

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
(long beat – look around)
Has the Gospel of the Kingdom been preached unto all the world?
By 70 AD did the inhabitants of Catalina Island, and Logan Utah hear the Gospel?
Oh, wait . . . the Greek word here for world is Cosmos, right, which again means “the entire earth” . . . right?
Wrong.
Instead of Cosmos Jesus said “OI KU MEN AY).
What’s that mean?
The area. The land. Probably the Roman Empire.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the (land) for a witness unto all ethnicities . . . and (He tells His apostles there) and then shall the end come.

(Long beat)

Well come back to this point next week.

Questions
Prayer

There will be Women’s Bible Study
There will be our Thursday Night Open Bible Study.

Update on stations.