Hebrews 8.end – part II
April 6th 2014
Meat
Communion
Welcome
Let’s pray
(Communion)
While I do not believe there is any requirement to have communion any longer I think that there is something beautiful about it – something that transcends the obvious and delves deeply into our relationship with God while in our flesh.
Symbolism can really profoundly affect us, can’t it? And our taking communion is a highly symbolic act – in fact that is all that it is.
I mean we aren’t partaking of unleavened bread and wine as a means to cleanse ourselves of sin – that is almost comical when we think about it relative to scripture for it is ONLY by and through faith on the shed blood of Christ that we have been cleansed of sin.
But we continue to ingest these elements anciently established together as believers, and in so doing we are moved – to reflection, to introspection, to gratitude for God saving us while we were yet sinners.
(beat)
A number of months ago we abolished the monthly rote practice of partaking of these elements simply because even on a first of the month basis the practice was becoming religious.
We want relationship – with Him and with each other. So here we are gathered in a room as men and women who believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was born, lived a sinless life, and then offered Himself up to be beaten and killed . . . for us . . . for our sins past, present, and future, large and small.
And while we are in this flesh – in these bodies – we are taking a few minutes to symbolically eat elements that depict Him – broken, unleavened bread and His shed blood – which redeems us, saving us from judgment.
Please come forward and take up these simple, beautiful elements that represent our faith.
Eat them as you are inclined, and let’s join with each other in this physical, highly symbolic memorial of our King.
May His SPIRIT (by which we NOT live) be with us in abundance.
Play “Take Eat”
Alright, we left off with the writer telling us that the Old Covenant was “waxing old”, “decaying” and was about to vanish away.”
Why?
We recall the most amazing and beautiful description by God Himself of what He was going to replace the Old Covenant with, saying:
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
We covered this at length last week and I also talked about what God is actually saying here on our weekly television show.
Frankly it is most revolutionary – so revolutionary that in my opinion it completely alters once and for all every attempt religions (and religious men and women) make to organize and establish church.
In the face of this you may be sitting on several questions, including:
“If church wasn’t important why do we read all about it in the New Testament?”
And
“If church isn’t important what are we doing here?”
Before launching into chapter nine and what it has to say, let me address these two questions.
First of all “If church wasn’t important why do we read all about it in the New Testament?”
We talked about this on Thursday night but the concept is SO important to what I believe is a sound understanding of the Bible I think its worth a short re-visit.
The Old Covenant, which we have been talking about in our studies of Hebrews (and which we are going to tap on again due to our text for today) was established on a number of things (if you will):
Laws (written on stone)
Priesthood (based on genealogy)
Sacrifices (for national and individual atonement)
An obedience/blessing disobedience/cursing economy
Promises of a Messiah
A material economy
A covenant that was externally observed and maintained but could not touch on permanency nor live internally.
Living oracles receiving instructions from God
From this we have written records, which the Children of Israel carefully maintained and passed along – vital to the spiritual lives of all living under the physical, material covenant.
Got all this?
(new section)
When Christ was born, we know that we began to see the fulfillment of all of these things – in Him – and again, materially.
We know He came to the House of Israel and that He was Born of a Woman – physically taking ON flesh. Matter.
A material messiah in flesh coming to redeem a material nation that had been living under material laws and ordinances and was promised this material Messiah.
He was born materially (in flesh).
He lived a material life (all that we do).
He suffered material torture and mistreatment.
He died a material physical death (spiritual too) and was resurrected materially – leaving an empty tomb.
To this nation He came specifically to save they saw Him – touched Him – killed Him.
And He returned to wrap up the age with judgment on them materially in 70 AD.
This a completely congruent timeline and chronology of God working in and through the salvation of the Nation of Israel.
Additionally, we note how Christ Jesus completed of fulfilled all of the above relative to the nation of Israel:
Relative to the Laws (written on stone) He fulfilled them entirely by and through perfect obedience to them – we therefore look to Him – (not laws written in stone) as the author and finisher of our faith.
Priesthood (based on genealogy) was (again) complete in Him with Him becoming our great High Priest (something we have covered extensively here in Hebrews). I would ardently push for the notion that with Him as our high priest that there is absolutely NO NEED whatsoever for any man in a religious office to call himself (or herself, for that matter, a priest).
Blood sacrifices (for national and individual atonement) of course were complete in Him as now we become living sacrifices not dead ones (unless we speak of the flesh).
An obedience/blessing disobedience/cursing economy has also been lost when the material economy was replaced with one that is spiritually based.
(more on this in a minute)
Of course the promises of a Messiah were complete in His incarnation.
And where the Old Covenant (which, at the time of this writing was waxing old and getting ready to vanish) was externally observed and maintained Jesus nailed all the covenantal elements of the cross making them internally applicable.
Finally, in our Old Testament comparative “living oracles” (Prophets) who received instructions from God directly are replaced by His Son, who as the living Word, describes and described all God would ever want to say when He became flesh.
From all this now we can see that at this point we are presented with two vital components to God interacting and saving human kind – the Old Covenant and the fulfillment of it in and through Jesus becoming flesh.
Let’s talk about another subsequent period we read about for a minute.
The Old Covenant is articulated from Genesis to Malachi, right.
The fulfillment of the Old (and actually and extension of it) is described in the four Gospels, right – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
But in these gospels we read that Jesus called or chose twelve men to whom He would teach His ways.
He told and taught them many, many things.
It is interesting how we read these instructions as believers today.
Sometimes people read them and believe Jesus was talking to the world in the things He said. Sometimes people will realize that Jesus was training the twelve for a special apostolic ministry they would complete on His behalf which was rife with peril and one of a kind situations.
I would suggest that most of what Jesus says to His twelve is applicable to them and their mission.
Don’t get me wrong – there is an abundance of information Jesus taught the twelve that is applicable to all believers but the modern believer has to be careful to read the context of everything He says that is recorded in the gospels – as some of it is specifically to them and what they were being asked to do on His errand AT THAT TIME.
While training them He has a number of run-ins with the religious rulers of His day – Pharisees, Sadducees – men who represented the Old Covenant on steroids.
On one occasion (Matthew 23) the Lord really throws down on them, and after walking away, tells the twelve the temple they are observing was going to be tossed to the ground. Later Peter, James, John and Andrew later gather around Him and say (in Matthew 24)
“Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?”
And He tells them in detail, 1) when those things would be and 2) what would be the sign of His coming and the sign of the end of that age (NOT the end of the world).
And after telling them everything He had described He says:
“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”
Shortly thereafter He is killed, resurrected, and ascends – promising to return.
Prior to ascending into heaven He tells His chosen to carry His message out to the ends of the area (ge, not cosmos) and instructs them to establish the church as the Holy Spirit instructs them.
Now we enter into another phase – the church phase – the early church phase.
We recall that it began with three thousand plus Jewish souls (from all different parts of the area who were in Jerusalem to celebrate) who believed on the words of Peter at the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell.
We could surmise that these individuals returned home having only the Holy Spirit within them as their guide. As others were influenced by their witness and the Holy Spirit Christianity grew.
All without the benefit of a completed (and in some cases without ANY) written word.
In fact if we take the New Testament books of the Bible it wasn’t until AD 363 that the full New Testament was agreed upon and available to be even be read in the churches by pastors!
I am saying this because from the time of Jesus Christ’s ascension believers did NOT have the written word available to them to even be heard (let alone read).
It was almost ten generations of believers NOT having the contents of a full New Testament available to them.
How did God keep His church together?
EZ-peazy Japanesy – and the answer is found in how the writer of Hebrews describes the New Covenant (as compared to the Old) in Hebrews 8.
Again . . .
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
So, from the ascension of Jesus until the compilation of the New Testament writings what was going on?
The Holy Spirit was at work – we know that – in the minds and hearts of believers (just like He is today). Perhaps then in a more observable way.
However, eleven of the men Jesus chose (plus an additional one chosen later – Paul) oversaw the growth and administration of the church.
It was put in their hands by Jesus Himself to make decisions.
And what did they do?
They made personal visits, they shared the Good News as first hand witnesses of the resurrected Lord, and they wrote letters to the churches.
About 38% of the New Testament we have is composed of these letters (we call them epistles) written by Paul (and if we say he wrote Hebrews he wrote fourteen, John wrote three, Peter two and Jude and James each wrote one).
I personally think we can assume all the gospels and epistles were written before 70 AD.
Now this is important – what was the intention of Paul and Peter and John and James and Jude writing these epistles in the first place?
Some believers today say they were written for our benefit today – some go as far as saying that they were written PRIMARILY for our benefit today and they support this position by likening Paul and his letters to the local churches to ancient prophets like Isaiah or others who wrote not knowing why (or sometimes even what) they were putting down on parchment.
I would disagree.
The gospels were written to record all the original twelve saw and witnessed and each of them had a specific intention and purpose.
But these letters were written with a very specific and PRIMARY purpose in mind. They were not prophetic in their general nature (pointing to the coming of Christ) but they all had varied purposes that had primary application in the local earliest churches.
We CANNOT lose sight of these facts because to so do is to lose context (and lacking context) we can make the New Testament say and mean ANYTHING we want.
I don’t think there is a thinking Christian alive who would read the Old Testament and say –
“We have to do everything that they did in it.”
Why?
Because context tells us otherwise. There was a purpose and place of the Old Testament record since fulfilled. It’s not that we discard the Old Testament – we use the contents to provide us with great spiritual insights and to give us a tremendous framework by which to understand the New.
But the context of these apostolic letters was primarily instructional, informational, and sources of encouragement and insights on pressing questions members of the earliest church had (like when to expect Jesus return).
This brings us to the overall contextual picture we have regarding the early church – it struggled – with everything.
There was extreme poverty as they were banished from their own people and synagogues.
There was extreme pressure on Judaic converts to revert back to Judaism – and a constant pressure from converted Jews to Judaize the nascent church.
There were Roman troubles (depending on the time frame) egregious sin and internal seditions that if left unattended ran the risk of hurting the early shoots of tender faith.
Didn’t God establish His word on their hearts and minds? Certainly. But He didn’t leave them alone. And they also had the presence of the twelve witnesses, and the reassurances that they were in capable hands as these men were especially trained by Christ to establish His church during this incredibly difficult time.
So, as they went about in their duties they saw the need to establish certain practices – calling servants (which is diaconos in the Greek and which we have transliterated as Deacons today believing it is a special title – when it only means servants over physical matters.
And then once small house churches were up and running (because the church planted new churches in other places) sometimes they would choose to have some of the older male believers (Elders, again from a Greek word that simply means older person) take charge.
The Major “on hand decisions” these apostles made (BY THE Holy Spirit and in the face of extreme NEED because they were under fire) were communicated to the other churches by way of letters – epistles which, nearly four hundred years – later were officially gathered and canonized for our learning and edification.
Here is my point:
The Lord established these twelve men to lead His church ONLY for that time. Why?
(beat)
Now, we have some pat answers. They include the following:
The original twelve were special witnesses who saw all Christ did and said first hand – that couldn’t be carried on over the ages of the church.
I would suggest that we look to Paul to see otherwise.
Jesus could have appeared to them and taught them like He taught Paul, right, so we can’t say it was because they were first hand witnesses – Paul proves a work around to this).
Another pat answer is that we say:
“Well, we have their words to teach us and guide us today – you know, in the epistles and Gospel accounts.
These WRITINGS have supplanted the need for any living men giving direction.
To this I would ask a few questions.
First, it is tough to say that we have had the Bible to guide us (His Church) because while some of the writings were available to some of the members of the body in the early church, all of the writings (which we place a very BIG emphasis on today – the whole word of God) wasn’t available (because it wasn’t decided upon) until some 330 years later.
What I mean by this is the Body of Christ did NOT have the entire word of God available to it until 360 something AD.
And then that wasn’t even available to the general public – the masses, those who needed it most – really, until the Reformational years.
What was guiding, and building, and governing, and keeping the Body alive?
The Holy Spirit. Indwelling in believers.
This is how Jesus established His Church and the Gates of Hell would NOT prevail against it.
It was spiritually governed internally – not externally – by Him.
I am NOT suggesting (in the least suggesting) that the Word is not one of the greatest blessings to believers past and present.
But I am suggesting the following – quite strongly:
The new covenant is internally driven and thrives and exists outside the machinations of Man.
The Old and New Testaments work in conjunction to bring all men to a deeper Christian walk. The Holy Spirit without the witness of the Word often leads to mystical Christianity and the Word without the influence of the Holy Spirit is always legalism. God gave us both.
The written word is a history with historical context. Read in conjunction with the Holy Spirit we are able to derive spiritual insight to Christian living. Read outside of historical context and the Word becomes nothing more than the Law.
It is the Spirit that teaches us all things – NOT Man and not the Word of God alone. This is what caused God to say in Hebrews 8:
“I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
This is what cause John the Beloved to write in 1st John 2
1st John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
I am certain that we have made a mistake in our views of how to do church.
I think the mistakes we have made are based on a number of different factors.
I think we have misunderstood the value and over-abiding ability of God to work in and through believers individually.
As a result we have taken the Word of God and ignored context and applied it as the Pharisees applied the Law.
I think the New Testament has become the New Law and in so becoming the Holy Spirit has been quenched.
I think that in attempting to assign application of the early church directives to our day has caused Christianity to become institutionalized and highly objective, which again, moves against two profound facts presented by the Bible:
First, Christianity is a subjective experience, not and objective one.
I substantiate this position by the fact that there is liberty in Christ, that God Himself has written His laws on individual believers hearts and minds, and that John the Beloved plainly states that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, not Man.
I support it by the fact that objective law and rules and governance is reflective of the old Covenant, with Man looking to the law writ large and complying (or not) and that much of Christianity today have set the New Testament up in a very similar manner – holding it up as the law by which all must comply, ignoring the fact that it is the Spirit that governs, guides, and teaches us all things – and we have absolutely NO need to fear when believers have been spirit filled – for their eternal future.
Do we gather together to read and study His written word? Certainly. Remember, there can be a tendency toward Christian mysticism without the presence of this second witness.
But we cannot make the mistake (or rather, we cannot continue to make the mistake) of thinking that God writing His law and word on the hearts and minds of believers is incapable of governing His children.
So . . . we continue to read and study His word, learning the lessons contained therein and applying them to our lives.
And with that lets end with a quick but general analysis of chapter nine.
As I started out today saying, the writer of Hebrews ended chapter eight saying:
That the the Old Covenant was “waxing old”, “decaying” and was about to vanish away.”
The general design of chapter nine is the same as the-two preceding chapters – show that Christ as High Priest is superior to the Jewish high priest.
The more focused point here in chapter nine is that the former dispensation was mere shadow, type, or figure, and that the latter was real and efficacious.
So this objective we get the following information:
(1.) A description of the ancient tabernacle, and of the utensils that were in it (verses 1-5).
(2.) A description of the services in it, particularly of that performed by the high priest once a year (verses 6-7).
(3.) That all of this was typical and symbolic and was a demonstration of Man’s way into heaven (verses 8-10).
(4.) Christ was now come–the substance of which that was the shadow (11-14) and that, as a Priest, he offered not the blood of bulls and goats, but his own blood (12)
Which had the ability to cleanse the human conscience (13-14).
Then verse 15 shows that the efficacy of His blood reached backward into past ages for those under the former covenant.
And then from verses 16-23 the writer proceeds to show how the Mediator of the New Covenant had to shed His own blood, that the offering was to be made once (verse 24-26) and he wraps the chapter up with a remarkable comparison between the death of Christ and the death of all men.
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