A Letter to the HEBREWS - Chapter Three

Jesus greater than Moses

1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honour than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 ‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,’ bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

Warning against unbelief

7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:

‘Today, if you hear his voice,

8 

    do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion,

    during the time of testing in the wilderness,

9 

where your ancestors tested and tried me,

    though for forty years they saw what I did.

10 

That is why I was angry with that generation;

    I said, “Their hearts are always going astray,

    and they have not known my ways.”

11 

So I declared on oath in my anger,

    “They shall never enter my rest.”’

12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:

‘Today, if you hear his voice,

    do not harden your hearts

    as you did in the rebellion.’

16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Hebrews 3: “today“ (vv.7, 13 & 15)

Knowing believers are under real pressure to crack, the letter urges perseverance with the strongest motivation: “fix your thoughts on Jesus” (v.1). It twice quotes in vv.7-8, then again in v.15, from the words of Psalm 95 vv.7-8, “today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”  It also urges all readers to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today” (v.13). 

If the going gets tough, it’s advisable to take a day at a time. That’s how God’s help comes (“daily bread”). And if you spot one of your companions flagging, give them your support, not criticism. “Today”!

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READING 

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Chapter Three

Read by David Suchet

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OVERVIEW 

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Overview

(The Bible Project)

https://youtu.be/1fNWTZZwgbs

===

STUDIES

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Part 1

Study by David Pawson

https://youtu.be/kmUXH0_rQuQ

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Part 1

Study by David Pawson

https://youtu.be/NrW4pWjUzRQ

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A Letter to the HEBREWS - Chapter Two

Warning to pay attention

1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Jesus made fully human

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:

‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

    a son of man that you care for him?

7 

You made them a little lower than the angels;

    you crowned them with glory and honour

8 

    and put everything under their feet.’

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,

‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;

    in the assembly I will sing your praises.’

13 And again,

‘I will put my trust in him.’

And again he says,

‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Hebrews 2: “humanity” (v.14)

After the declaration in chapter 1 of Jesus’ sublime merits, we are next told why he “shared” his true “humanity” with us. The purpose was “so that by his death he might destroy … the power of death … and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (vv.14-15). 

In verse 10 Jesus is described as “the author of … salvation”; 

In verse 9 it twice mentions his death: “he suffered death … so that he might taste death for everyone”; 

In verse 17 it says this was to “make atonement for the sins of the people.”  

What a Saviour – for the whole of “humanity”!

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READING 

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Chapter Two

Read by David Suchet

===

OVERVIEW 

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Overview

(The Bible Project)

https://youtu.be/1fNWTZZwgbs

===

STUDIES

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Part 1

Study by David Pawson

https://youtu.be/kmUXH0_rQuQ

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Part 2

Study by David Pawson

https://youtu.be/NrW4pWjUzRQ

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A Letter to the HEBREWS - Chapter One

HEBREWS

Overview

(The Bible Project)

God’s final word: his Son

1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

The Son superior to angels

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,

‘You are my Son;

    today I have become your Father’?

Or again,

‘I will be his Father,

    and he will be my Son’?

6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’

7 In speaking of the angels he says,

‘He makes his angels spirits,

    and his servants flames of fire.’

8 But about the Son he says,

‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;

    a sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of your kingdom.

9 

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

    therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions

    by anointing you with the oil of joy.’

10 He also says,

‘In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,

    and the heavens are the work of your hands.

11 

They will perish, but you remain;

    they will all wear out like a garment.

12 

You will roll them up like a robe;

    like a garment they will be changed.

But you remain the same,

    and your years will never end.’

13 To which of the angels did God ever say,

‘Sit at my right hand

    until I make your enemies

    a footstool for your feet’?

14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Hebrews 1: “forefathers” (v.1)

The author was Jewish, writing to Jews, because he writes about “our forefathers” (v.1). He says that God, who had spoken to their ancestors “through the prophets at many times and in  various ways” (v.1), communicated much more recently “by his Son” (v.2). 

He exalts Jesus repeatedly with several statements and Old Testament quotes (e.g. “the radiance of God’s glory … provided purification for sins … superior to the angels (v.4) … about the Son he says ‘your throne, O God, will last forever” (v.8, Psalm 45 v.6). No wonder he adds “let all … worship him!” (v.6

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READING 

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Chapter One

Read by David Suchet

===

OVERVIEW 

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Overview

(The Bible Project)

https://youtu.be/1fNWTZZwgbs

===

STUDIES

A Letter to the HEBREWS

Part 1

Study by David Pawson

https://youtu.be/kmUXH0_rQuQ

A letter to the HEBREWS

Part 2

Study by David Pawson

https://youtu.be/NrW4pWjUzRQ

SERMONS

The Final word

Timothy Keller 

HEBREWS 1:1-4 and 2:1-4

https://youtu.be/UZehei9m-Z0

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NOVEMBER - READINGS

NOVEMBER -  READINGS

from the New International Version (UK)