ON WHOM THE TOWER FELL
ON VIDEO-
.Barber’s razor
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.ISIS
PAST POSTS [verses below]-
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(984)1ST CORINTHIANS 12:1-6 ‘There are different gifts, ministries
and out workings of the Spirit’ [my paraphrase]. In this section we see an idea
that I feel gets lost in the current paradigm of ‘doing church’. When Paul
addresses a church [community of believers] he is speaking to all the believers
in the city. When we think ‘church’ we assume it means ‘church’ as ‘going to
the church [building] on Sunday’. Therefore we tend to read these types of
verses as ‘there are different gifts and functions in ‘the church’- the Sunday
school teacher, nursery worker, door greeter’ well you get it. The better
reading would be ‘there are various expressions and ways the Spirit works and
administers thru/in the community’. For instance, those who labor in
‘Para-church’ ministries are often considered noble, but not ‘a church’. But
according to this passage, they would be just as much ‘church’, a legitimate
part of the local body, as the home meeting [of course we know in Paul’s day
there were no church buildings]. So the broader view of church as community
would see these verses saying ‘where you live there are a variety of gifted
ones whom the Spirit of God lives and operates thru. These saints all express
the community of the Spirit in various ways. All these expressions are just as
legitimate as the other, it is one Spirit manifesting himself in diverse ways
for the overall benefit of all the believers in your city’. When we label what
the Spirit is doing thru other ‘administrations’ as ‘Para-church’ we violate
this passage of scripture. When we limit the various expressions and gifts to
‘the Sunday church meeting’ we actually are violating the intent of these
verses. In your city you have doctors, lawyers, and all types of trades. While
it is fine for them to operate out of a building and to keep regular business
hours. Yet you wouldn’t describe them as separate, individual little ‘cities’
who all operate out of your town. You would see all of them as various gifted
people who ‘operate out of your city’. So this is the broader view of what I
think Paul is saying. Now he will also give directions on how these various
gifts work in the meeting, this of course is part of it. But we need to see the
broader view of what the Spirit is saying. Jesus expected his disciples to go
out into the highways and hedges and ‘compel them to come in’ [not into the
church building for heavens sake! But into the Kingdom] Paul taught that the
Spirit accomplishes this in many different ways thru ‘the church’ [people of
God].
(985)1ST
CORINTHIANS 12:7 ‘But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to EVERY MAN to
profit EVERY BODY’. I want to share a criticism that sometimes gets made
against me. I know ‘the critics’ mean well, and are actually sincere men. It’s
just they have been ‘shaped’ by the present system of ‘church’. The criticism
goes like this ‘sure John has an effective teaching ministry [blog/radio] but
if you need someone to come pray for you, lets see if he will come’. The idea
is that the true legitimate ‘elders’ are those you can ‘call for’. James says
‘if any one is sick among you, let him call for the elders of ‘the church’.
They see ‘the church’ as the actual 501c3, building, Sunday meeting
[storehouse] type thing - they are simply seeing thru their ‘lens’. What James
is simply saying is ‘if someone is sick in your community/local body of
believers, call for the elders [more spiritually mature ones] and let them pray
for you and anoint you with oil’. Now, I have personally spent many thousands
[yes thousands!] of actual man hours on the streets helping people. I have
helped and given to some of the local homeless population who attend some of
these ‘churches’, out of my own pocket. Yet these same homeless brothers are
encouraged to give ten percent of their money to ‘their church’. What am I
saying here? I know the men who level this type of accusation are often
intimidated by peer pressure and stuff. But the verse above says ‘the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every believer to profit every one
around them’. The biblical view of ‘church’ would simply require all believers
to ‘administer the gift’ in a way that would profit all those around them.
There is no need to make these types of distinctions between ‘the elders of our
church’ or ‘the spiritual leaders in our region’. They mean the same thing. So
see your gift as a freely received charism that should be used unselfishly for
the benefit of others. Also some Pastors do seem to come around to ‘my view’
after many years of hearing us. They might then try and do some city wide ministry,
open to all the body. Then if the results are not good, they can become
discouraged also. Understand, many of these men took many years before they
could really see what we were saying, don’t expect a majority of local
believers to see things that took you years to see! The paradigms don’t come
down that easily.
(986)CORINTHIANS
12: 8-10 this section deals with the various gifts of the Spirit. The list is
not exhaustive, Paul speaks in Romans and Ephesians about other ones as well.
Instead of diving into a definition for each gift, lets look a little at the
various ‘modes’ and characteristics of the Spirit of God. In revelation we have
a scripture that many seem to stumble over, it says ‘the 7 spirits of God that
are before his throne’. Some associate Isaiah 11 with this. In Isaiah 11 you
can find 6 distinct characteristics of the Spirit of God, some see 7. Or you
could say ‘God has 7 actual Spirits’. Does God have 7 spirits? Or 25 or 10,000?
God is the creator of all spirits. He is the Father of lights! In revelation
you have Jesus holding the ‘7 stars’ in his hand, which are said to be angels.
Then you have the ‘7 angels of the 7 churches’. I showed you before why these
angels are not ‘Pastors’ they are angels! [You can find the post somewhere
under END TIMES STUFF]. Revelation has 7 seals, bowls, candlesticks. The book
is a prophetic book that has angels revealing and operating and functioning.
The 7 spirits before God’s throne are probably the 7 angels spoken about in the
book. Hebrews says the angels are ‘ministering spirits’. Well let’s get off the
rabbit trail. In Isaiah 61 we have the famous verses that Jesus read and
applied to himself in the New Testament [Luke 4]. Jesus opens the scroll and
reads about the Spirit of God upon him, the eyes of everyone in that place were
fixated on him. Notice how both in Isaiah 11 and 61, one of the main purposes
of the anointing was to administer justice to the poor and oppressed. Much of
Evangelicalism has opted out of this responsibility. There was an overreaction
to the social gospel of the late 19th, early 20th
century. The social gospel had a tendency to overemphasize good deeds, without
focusing on conversion. But the Fundamentalist movement of the 20th
century neglected the social justice aspect of the kingdom, thank God for the
Catholics who picked up the torch. The point today is the purpose of the gifts,
which we will get into tomorrow, is not simply for self glory and edification.
Or should I say the purpose of the anointing. Jesus made it very clear that his
mission involved justice for the poor and oppressed, he did not limit his
ministry to ‘the church’.
(991)1ST
CORINTHIANS 12: 8-11 Instead of giving you my definition for each one of the
gifts of the Spirit, let me just give you a sense of where I’m coming from.
Over the years I have learned the normal Pentecostal understanding of these
gifts. I also have learned the ‘anti-Pentecostal’ view. I take a little from
each camp. The strong Pentecostal view usually sees all the gifts as
‘supernatural’ I do too! But to them this means the gifts of Wisdom and
Knowledge can’t be ‘regular wisdom or knowledge’. Okay, so what are they? Some
teach that the ‘word of wisdom’ is simply a prophetic word about future stuff.
The ‘word of knowledge’ is simply prophetic insight into ‘past stuff’. To be
honest I have no idea how people come up with stuff like this [well, actually I
do have an idea]. I see Paul as operating in a strong gift of knowledge, though
Paul was trained and had a good education, the Spirit took all of his ‘head
knowledge’ and quickened it. I see James as having a strong gift of wisdom, his
epistle is the only New Testament work considered to be part of the corpus of
wisdom literature. Of course the gifts of healing[s] and prophecy are
supernatural, but wisdom and knowledge can be ‘supernatural’ without having to
fall into some prophetic type category. If it’s wisdom and knowledge from God,
then it is supernatural! I have known Pastors who had the gift of wisdom,
sometimes they would come to the same conclusions as me, but they took a
different route to get there! They might not have ‘seen’ all the knowledge
portions of scripture that I saw, but the wisdom they operated in caused them
to arrive at the same place. Some teach that after the Spirit fell on the
church at Pentecost [Acts 2] that you no loner had miracles, dreams and visions
or angelic visitations. Why is this wrong? The book that records more miracles
and angels and visions than any other book [except for the gospels] is the book
of Acts. In essence, one of the major New Testament books on these
manifestations shows them to be a result of the Spirits outpouring! The point
being these things didn’t end after Pentecost. I realize both camps
[Pentecostal- non Pentecostal] have had their wars over this stuff. I find that
both sides can be just as legalistic and judgmental in their views. I think one
of the major ‘signs’ of being ‘Spirit filled’ is a life based on free grace.
When people grasp the gospel and are filled with the Spirit, they should be free
from living their lives out of a state of condemnation and guilt. Many ‘Spirit
filled’ churches operate in the gifts [their view of them] but are just as
legalistic as the non Pentecostals. To me this is not what it means to be
‘Spirit filled’. Overall we should be open to the working of the Spirit in
supernatural ways. We should avoid making this the goal or identity of our
Christian walk, but we should not reject or despise prophetic/supernatural
things. They are available and necessary at times for completion of the
mission.
(994)1ST
CORINTHIANS 12: 12-26 Paul uses the analogy of a body to describe the church.
Keep in mind that the ‘church’ in Paul’s writings mean ‘all Gods people in the
region/city’. Not just the gathered assembly! It’s important to make this
distinction because much of the talk on the restoration of the organic church
versus the institutional church focuses too much on the way believers meet.
Here Paul is saying ‘you are all individual distinct members in the local
community, you express Christ in various ways, though you have unique gifts you
also are part of one corporate expression of Christ in your city’. The distinct
gifts function in your community, not just in the meeting! [Whether it be the
Sunday building type thing or the living room!] Paul also tells them to be on
the guard for the ‘one member dominating the group’ expression of church. If
everyone is centered on one particular gift then the corporate expression of
the Body of Christ is diminished. Or if everyone saw ‘full time ministry’ as
being a modern Pastor then you would have too many sincere believers all
seeking to serve God in a limited way ‘if all were an eye, ear, mouth [speaking
gift]’ then where would the Body be? I find this chapter to be a key chapter in
the current reformation of modern church practices. As Gods people strive for a
more scriptural expression of ‘being the church’ we need to keep this chapter
in mind. Now, a word for the strong organic church brothers. The fact that Paul
encourages a corporate expression in the church does not mean the gatherings of
Gods people must be leaderless. Paul includes the concept of Elders in his
writings. To be sure these men were not to dominate the meetings, or be the
weekly speaker on an ongoing basis. But some hold to a type of idea that the
way the church is supposed to testify of the ‘headship of Christ’ is by
demonstrating a human leaderless church. That is God ordained the local bodies
of believers to have no functioning human leaders in order to show forth Christ’s
headship. To be honest I don’t see this in scripture. I see leaders in
plurality [never a one man show] and Paul was not afraid to tell Titus and
Timothy to ‘ordain’ [recognize!] Elders in the church. But the overall
instruction in this chapter is God wants all of his people to function on a
regular basis in the Body of Christ. This of course includes the gatherings,
but it is not limited to them. The primary way we ‘show’ the world the Lordship
of Jesus is by the selfless love we have one for another. When we daily live
charitable, sacrificial lives, this demonstrates the ‘headship of Jesus’ over
the church. The way believers meet has some effect on this, but most of Jesus
instructions to the disciples was on how they would go out into the world and bring
the great message of the kingdom to society. The primary ‘battlefield’ of the
church militant is the world, not the meeting place!
(996)1ST
CORINTHIANS 12:27-31 Lets talk about ‘the fivefold ministry’ [some say four].
In the 90’s there was a real interest in this subject. It comes from this
portion of scripture [and Ephesians 4]. The basic teaching is/was that God was
restoring all these ministries [Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and
Teachers- some see this as one combined gift] and that this restoration was one
of the final things to happen before Christ’s return. I read and bought lots of
books on church planting and how Apostles are gifted to ‘plant churches’. This
teaching really wasn’t a new thing. Back in the 1800’s you had Edward Irving
head up an apostolic movement called ‘the apostolic catholic church’
[Irvingites]. You had interesting folk like John Alexander Dowie who would
start a modern city of God called ‘Zion ’ in Illinois .
Brother Dowie saw himself as an apostle and felt the Lord led him to start an
apostolic city. You can still visit the city today. It was also common for many
‘up and coming’ preachers to begin seeing themselves as ‘apostles/prophets’ and
actually advertise their callings in this way. Well of course the old time brothers
who reject the gifts all together, saw this as another sign of the end time
apostasy. You also had a strange phenomenon take place. It was common for
‘apostolic/prophetic’ people to be taught ‘the missing ingredient is covering
and authority’- the churches are weak because they are under pastoral
authority, they don’t have apostles ‘covering them’ [ouch!]. So it was not
uncommon to have respected men kind of stepping over the normal boundaries of
relating to churches and to say things like ‘you need to do this’ ‘you over
there, be quiet. I don’t give you permission to speak’ and stuff like this.
These sincere men thought it their responsibility to act this way. They felt
this was a part of the restoration of apostles. Now, do apostles exist today [and
prophets]? To be honest with you, yes. If you read this section along with
Ephesians chapter 4, it is next to impossible to teach that they passed away in
the first century. These scriptures make it clear that after Jesus ascended he
gave ‘some apostles, others prophets’ they are included in the list of
evangelists, pastors and teachers. If you lose one gift, then you lose them
all. Also the timing of their ministries is given ‘till we all come to the
unity of the faith unto a perfect man’. These gifts are all given to build Gods
people up until we come to fall maturity. We aint there yet! So it’s pretty
obvious that these gifts exist. Those who believe they don’t exist usually
refer to the fact that the apostles of the Lamb [a category unto itself] did pass
away. They will show you the truth of these apostles having to have been
witnesses of Jesus actual resurrection. But these are a different category of
apostles. The ones in this chapter were not even ‘made’ until after Jesus
ascended on high. The same for the prophets. So, what do these strange fellows
do? In all the books and stuff I have read on these movements, I feel some have
been too limited in their definitions. Some taught that they were primarily
itinerant men [traveling church planters]. Of course Paul was the master at
this. But you find James as a stable pillar of the church at Jerusalem . Peter did travel, but he was no
Gentile church planter like Paul! And Timothy in the New Testament had an
apostolic type gifting, yet he was a protégée under Paul. So for the most part
apostles do carry a special ability to ground Gods people in truth. Those who
are called to ‘plant churches’ need to be more in tune with the example of
Paul. Many modern day ‘apostles’ see church planting as going to a region and
organizing Christians to meet in certain ways. I have heard it said ‘I have
planted an organic church’ ‘I have planted a home group’ or of course the
standard ‘I have planted a building based church’. The main ‘church planting’
of Paul was bringing the gospel to UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS and evangelizing
those groups. Now of course he did give instructions to them on ‘how to meet’
[like in this book we are reading!] But don’t confuse ‘church planting’ with
organizing believers around a new way to meet. All in all God gave us these
gifts to build each other up and bring us to maturity, a place where we are no
longer dependent on these gifts to function. I feel one of the greatest dangers
was the strong authoritarian mindset that some of the apostolic brothers had,
they meant well, but they stepped over their boundaries at times.
(998)CORINTHIANS
‘DO ALL SPEAK WITH TONGUES’? - Before we leave chapter 12, let me overview a
little. Paul mentions ‘do all speak with tongues’ and the presumed answer is
‘no’. I love my Pentecostal brothers, but some have developed an interesting
doctrine that says ‘God wants all to speak with tongues’ though here it is
obvious that all don’t! I am familiar with the classic defense of this. It says
that in the beginning of the chapter the gifts are individual gifts that all
believers can have [true enough] but that later in the chapter the ‘tongues’
that all don’t operate in is speaking of some sort of ministry gift of tongues.
That Paul is basically saying ‘you can all prophesy, speak with tongues, etc..’
but you are not all going to have public ‘ministry gifts’ in these things.
Okay, I got it. What’s the problem with this defense? Simply that when your
done making the case, the brothers usually wind up saying ‘therefore, we should
all speak with tongues’! Any argument [case] made from scripture, needs to use
the plain language/thought flow to interpret that which is not plain. I believe
all the gifts are for today [though I would disagree on certain Pentecostal
definitions of them] but I also believe we violate the New Testament when we
teach that certain gifts are supposed to operate in every person. Sure, you can
find tongues and other gifts as signs in the book of Acts that believers were
filled with the Spirit. But this doesn’t mean that those who don’t speak in
tongues are not filled with the Spirit. Paul’s teaching here is that we are all
baptized into Christ by the Spirit and we are all ‘drinking in the one Spirit’
but yet he empathically says ‘you all will not have the same gifts operating’.
I think it is a violation of scripture to develop a doctrine that says ‘unless
you function in a certain gift, you are not Spirit filled’. I do not see the
classic Pentecostal division between ‘public tongues’ [that everyone doesn’t
do] and ‘private tongues’ that you must have in order to have proof of being
baptized in the Spirit. I do see the division to a degree, but I feel the
Pentecostal brothers are being legalistic when they make this case.
(999)1ST CORINTHIANS 13:1 ‘THOUGH I SPEAK WITH
THE TONGUES OF MEN AND OF ANGELS, AND HAVE NOT LOVE, I AM BECOME AS SOUNDING
BRASS OR A TINKLING SYMBOL’ Over the years I have seen how the church can ‘have
a voice-make noise’ without actually effecting change. Last night I watched
some Martin Luther King stuff. Without ‘sucking up for political purposes’ I
must admit that Martin is at the top of my list of personal heroes. Martin
spoke with a revolutionary purpose in mind, he was not ‘delivering sermons’.
One time I spoke at a friends church, I only spoke for around 15 minutes [much
like my radio show] and the pastor said ‘no wonder John doesn’t have a church/
preach regularly, you have to at least speak for 45 minutes’ [something like
that]. Though after the message I had good comments from the people, the
sincere pastor felt like we didn’t ‘put the time in’ in order to fulfill the
Sunday morning practice of ‘church’. Were did we get our modern sermon from?
[The actual format]. If you go to Bible
College
[parts]
HEBREWS- 2015- VIDEO LINKS INCLUDED
HEBREWS 1-3 The next few weeks I’ll be teaching from an old commentary
I wrote a few years back [2007-8]- The notes at the bottom of the chapters- and
post- are new [as well as the videos].
NEW NOTE- In the study of the bible- there are debates about who wrote
the letters of the New Testament.
In the field of higher criticism- it gets a bit silly at times.
I just finished an on line course from a respected scholar out of Yale
university.
He taught from the higher criticism perspective- I enjoyed the course-
though I did not agree with lots of his conclusions.
At one point he questioned whether Paul wrote the middle chapter of one
of the letters attributed to Paul.
Yet he did believe the first- and last chapters were by Paul.
For the most part- we believe that the letters in the bible- that say
in them ‘written by Paul’ are from Paul [or Peter, James, Etc.].
But- Hebrews leaves the authors name out- so some debate who wrote it.
Tertullian- an early church father [2/3rd century]
attributed it to Barnabus- Paul’s companion that we read about in the book of
Acts-
For about 1500 years- till the time of the Reformation- most Christian
scholars attributed it to Paul.
Hebrews is written in a high form of Greek [which is another way we
determine who wrote the letters- tough this is not always accurate.
Many say John the apostle did not write Revelation- because the form of
Greek used is much lower than the other writings of John- yet- there is
internal witness that John [the apostle] wrote it.
In John’s writings [gospel- 1st, 2nd and 3rd
John] he speaks about Jesus as the Word [Logos] and this theme is seen in
Revelation too].
So- while we don’t know for sure- I personally stick with the
authorship of Paul the apostle.
INTRODUCTION:
I have been wanting to overview this book for
a long time. I believe there are a lot of misconceptions from Hebrews. Often
time’s modern translations take older books of the Bible and want to make them
relevant for our day. This can be both good and bad.
I like the message Bible, but for in depth
study it doesn’t really work. There are certain things that must be interpreted
in context of the time and place when
the book was written. Hebrews is one of the most important New Testament books
to ‘read in context’. I wont go over every verse in this short commentary, I
will hit the high points of various chapters and try to show you what I mean by
‘reading it in context’.
I believe it is possible that this book was
Paul’s ‘open letter’ to the first century Jewish community, this is quite
possibly why it goes unsigned. The ‘Judaizers’ had so polluted the minds of
their fellow Jews against Paul ‘he speaks against Moses and our law’ type
thing, that if Paul signed this letter, there would be little chance that the
intended audience would read it!
If you read a
book on auto mechanics, and tried to make it relevant for the human body, it
wouldn’t work. For instance if you spoke on the engine of a car, and then tried
to ‘translate’ that and equate it with the human heart, you would have
problems. But if you left it in context and then applied the concept of
maintenance and the need for clean fuel lines, and then applied it to the human
need for clean arteries, well then that would be OK.
So I believe when we read Hebrews, and don’t
try to make it ‘fit’ Gentile believers, then it works. You still get great
principles from the ‘manual’, but you understand that it is not speaking directly
to the Gentile church. God bless you guys, I hope you get something from
it. John.
CHAPTER 1:
NEW NOTES AT END OF CHAPTER-
LOGOS.
SEATED.
‘God, who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by
whom also he made the worlds. Many years ago when I was going to a fundamental
Baptist Church, they would interpret this passage in a ‘cessationist’ way. They
would say because God says in the past he spoke by prophets, but now by his
Son. That this means he doesn’t speak thru Prophets any more. The Prophets here
are Old Testament voices. In Ephesians it says after Jesus ascended up on high
he gave gifts unto men, some Apostles, some Prophets, etc. The fact that Jesus
made Prophets after the ascension teaches us that there were to be a whole new
class of New Testament Prophets that were different from the old. I find it
strange to believe that Jesus would create a whole new class of gifts, and then
take them away as soon as the Bible is complete. Why would Paul give
instruction in the New Testament on how Prophets would operate [Corinthians]
and then to say ‘as soon as this letter is canonized with the others, all this
instruction will be useless’ it just doesn’t seem right.
The reason Paul is saying in the past God used
Prophets, but today his Son. Paul is showing that the Jewish Old testament was
a real communication from God to man. But in this dispensation of Grace, God is
speaking the realities that the Prophets were looking to. Paul is saying ‘thank
God for the Old Jewish books and law, they point to something, his name is
Jesus’! The Prophets [Old Testament] served a purpose; they brought us from the
shadows to the present time [1st century] now lets move on into the
reality. Now you must see and hear the Son in these last days. ‘Who being the
brightness of his glory and the express image of his person…when he by himself
purged our sins SAT DOWN on the right hand of the majesty on high’ here we are
at the beginning stages of themes that we will see later in the letter. The
significance of Jesus ‘sitting down’ will be contrasted with the Old testament
priests ‘standing up’. Paul [for the record I think Paul wrote this letter,
from here on I will probably just refer to the writer as Paul] will teach that
the ‘standing up’ of the Levitical Priests represented an ‘incomplete
priesthood’ the reason Jesus sat down was because there would be no more
sacrifice, and no more priesthood made up of many priests who would die year
after year. This doesn’t mean there would be no more New Testament priests as
believers, but that there would be no more Old Testament system. Paul will find
spiritual truths like this all thru out the Old Testament.
Some theologians feel that Paul is a little
too loose with these free comparisons that he seems to ‘pull out of the hat’,
for the believer who holds to the canon of scripture, it is the Word of God.
‘Being made so much better than the angels…but unto the Son he saith “thy
throne O God is forever and ever, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of
thy Kingdom”. Here Paul introduces another theme that will be seen thru out
this letter. The superiority of Jesus over angels. Why is this important? Most
believers know that Jesus is greater than angels, don’t they? Here we see why
context is important to understand this letter. In Jewish tradition it is
believed that the law was given to Moses by God thru the mediation of angels.
Some say ‘well, we don’t use Jewish tradition, we use scripture’. First, Paul
used anything he could to win the argument. Second, if we believe Hebrews is an
inspired book, then when we read later on that the law given thru angels
received a recompense if broken, then right here you have scripture [Hebrews]
testifying that God did use angels to ‘transmit’ the law to some degree. Now,
why is it important for gentiles to see this? Well it really isn’t! But it is
vital for a first century Jew to see it. If Paul can show that Jesus is greater
than the angels, then he is beginning to make the argument that the New
Covenant is greater than the Old.
Here is the
context. Moses law is highly revered in the first century Jewish community, so
here Paul says ‘how much better is the law/word given to us from Gods Son’.
Since Jesus is much better than the angels, therefore pay closer attention to
the words spoken thru Gods Son, he is greater than the angels! ‘But to which of
the angels said he “sit at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy
footstool” we end chapter one with the theme of Jesus being better than the
angels, yet in chapter 2 something funny happens, Paul will make the argument
of Jesus being “a little lower than the angels” lets see what this means.
NEW NOTES-
4-2015
LOGOS.
We see God
having created all things thru Christ ‘the express image of his person- by whom
also he made the worlds’.
Jesus is called
the WORD of God in scripture- the Greek word- for ‘word’ is Logos.
We read in the
bible that God made all things- but also that Christ made all things-
Is this a
contradiction?
No-
For the first
3-4 centuries of Christianity- as you study the early church councils-
The early church
struggled over how to view the relationships between God and Jesus
These debates
raged- and at times each side viewed the other as Heretics.
I think it was a
mistake to be so quick to judge those as heretics- who were having difficulty in
expressing in finite words- the great mystery of God and Christ.
In Genesis we
read that God spoke all things into existence- so- here we see God’s Word-
Logos [Christ] as being the instrumental cause of creation.
In John chapter
one we read that Jesus was the Word- in the beginning- who was with God- and
was God.
I’ll try and
simplify it [not an easy task to say the least].
God- who is
Spirit- spoke- and this expression of God- his Word- is also referred to as
Christ-
Christ/Jesus is
the Word of God made flesh- and it is thru his humanity [incarnation] that we
do indeed see God in ‘the flesh’-
Yes- by Him- all
things were made.
SEATED.
We see a theme
in chapter 1- that will run thru the whole letter-
HE SAT DOWN- In
Hebrews we are seeing the superiority of the New Covenant over the old- and
there will be many comparisons to show how the Old Covenant- priests-
sacrifices- the law itself- was less than what we get in the New Covenant-
And the reality
that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God- shows us that he was the last-
and final High Priest- and the whole system of Priests under the law are now
done.
We will read
that the Old Testament priests stood [signifying that there work was ongoing-
meaning they would have to keep offering sacrifices that could never put away
sin].
But Jesus- after
he offered himself- sat down.
All thru this
letter we will see these comparisons-
LOTS OF QUOTES-
We also see a lot of quotes from the Psalms in this letter- just like we saw in
the Romans study.
There is a
debate over whether or not Paul wrote the letter- I think he did.
One of the
reasons is the author of Hebrews does the same thing as Paul in the other
letters- lots of cross references from the Old Testament books- and it just
seems to me to have the same flavor as Paul’s other letters.
Psalms 2, 104,
45, etc.
CHAPTER 2:
NEW NOTES AT BOTTOM
.HOW SHOULD WE INTERPRET
SCRIPTURE?
.PSLAMS, ISAIAH ‘REVEALED’ THRU
CHRIST
‘Therefore we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at anytime
[parts]
Homers poems are considered by
some to be the beginning of the great works of Western literature- of which
there are many.
The great writer C.S. Lewis- who
rejected Christianity for many years- later became a believer.
He attributed his conversion to
the fact that he could not escape the reality of the Church- or Christian
themes- found in all the fields of study.
Whether it was the classics- or
history- philosophy.
He said every were he read-
studied- he could not escape this scarlet thread that ran thru out all the
fields of knowledge.
Yeah- in the end- his thirst for
knowledge- his intellectual search- led him to the Cross.
Jesus- in a way- was a 1st
century Achilles- he battled the forces of darkness- for the honor of a woman-
the Bride- the church.
He- Like Achilles- chose a just
death- for a just cause.
There’s a prophecy in the Old
Testament- it speaks of Christ ‘the zeal of thine house has eaten me up’.
Jesus was a righteous warrior- a
prophet, priest and king- and he had a zeal for the church- that far exceeded
anything we find in Homers poems.
THE WEDDING PLANNER
Sunday I visited Dirk in jail-
he’s still waiting to see if they will indict him- on the stabbing of my other
friend- Tennessee.
I had a good talk with him- he
seems to be doing well.
He told me that some guy started
a bible study in the county jail- and he has about 30 guys attending.
Dirk told me the guy’s good-
knows what he’s talking about.
[parts]
VERSES-
. Ezekiel 5:1 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take
thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard:
then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
Ezekiel 5:2 Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of
the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third
part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in
the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.
Ezekiel 5:3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind
them in thy skirts.
Ezekiel 5:4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst
of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth
into all the house of Israel.
. 13 There were present at
that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And Jesus
answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above
all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
3 I tell
you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
4 Or those
eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they
were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
5 I tell
you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish
Luke
. 17 And after six days Jesus
taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high
mountain apart,
2 And was
transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment
was white as the light.
3 And,
behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
4 Then
answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if
thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses,
and one for Elias.
5 While he
yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of
the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear
ye him.
Matt.
. Genesis 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough
by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
Genesis 49:23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at
him, and hated him:
Genesis 49:24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his
hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is
the shepherd, the stone of Israel:
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truthcame by Jesus Christ. John
Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
Romans
1:2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Romans 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
Romans 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
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