Michigan Conference Campmeeting 2021: How Much More?

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

Dan Rachor

01 Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2021 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Father in heaven, as we look into this wonderful book of Hebrews, it surely is full of hope, and I pray that each 1 of us will come away from this seminar with a closer and a more blessed understanding of how much hope you have put into this book for us.

Please bless each and every 1 with our prayer in Jesus' name.

So the book of Hebrews begins with these words, with just a few taken out, but not changing the meaning.

Who spoke to our Father through the prophets in time past, has spoken to us through his Son.

And that, the book of Hebrews is a literary masterpiece.

And What the author does is literally allow God to speak.

There's more Old Testament quotations in the book of Hebrews than any other New Testament book.

And you don't find there, as is written in the book of Jeremiah or like that, you don't find that.

You find it's just he's letting God speak.

And really, the book of Hebrews, this is what it is.

The book of Hebrews is Old Testament quotation or quotations, as in the first chapter.

Explanation, in most cases, you know, of what we're supposed to get out of those or that quotation.

And then an exhortation, how that's supposed to, you know, how we're supposed to act.

That's what we have in the book of Hebrews.

Old Testament quote, explanation and exhortation.

In this seminar, we will barely touch the exhortation sections.

And just because there's so much, and that's, if we can grasp the steps as they go step by step, that'll just help us, you know, from there to understand the rest.

So, right there in the first 3 verses, which is the introduction to the entire book of Hebrews, and every line in there is elaborated on throughout the book.

He spoke to us through His Son, and then it describes the Son, which we'll get into in just a moment here.

But then it says, 1 of the descriptions of the Son, really the climactic description of the Son, is He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Tomorrow I'll read to you a beautiful description.

I'll shut these slides down and I'll read it to you.

So when I use this word, enthronement, I'm referring to when Jesus, having died and rose again to turn back to heaven where He was abundantly welcomed by heaven.

And even as Jesus Himself said, remember He said there in Revelation, He that overcomes, I will allow to sit with me on my throne even as I also overcame and sat with my Father on His throne." When Jesus went back to heaven there was a glorious celebration of the love of redemption.

And he was enthroned there, sharing the throne of God.

That is the main topic of the book of Hebrews.

Great and beautiful detail, but that is the main topic.

So, I start right here in the introduction, which mentions that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Let me just say that's the main topic of chapters 1 through 8, and then he builds on that.

And so here you see right here in the introductory verses, it mentions how that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

And in Hebrews 8, verse 1, He's, I say, written.

Sometimes you'll hear me refer to the author as the preacher because it's pretty well recognized that the book of Hebrews was probably preached before it was put in writing.

It's referred to, I think it's in chapter 13, this word of exhortation.

There's a lot of other evidence and that's why in the beginning you don't read, you know, Paul, you know, me and Timothy, you know, to the church at Thessalonians, it just starts out.

And so, after 7 chapters, 7 wonderful, well-thought-out chapters, This is what it says.

Now, this is the main point of everything we've been saying.

We have a high priest like the 1 we've been describing, who is what?

Seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of beautiful and important detail around this, but this is the main point.

We have such a high priest who's tempted in all points of the world, because we are in all this description of Him, which we'll study, and who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

Now this here is a quote from Psalm 110, verse 1, which says, "'The Lord said to my Lord, "'Sit at my right hand, "'till I make your enemies your footstool.'" Okay?

And you can see there, Hebrews 1, verse 3, "...he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high..." Those Majesty on high is added.

Hebrews 8, verse 1, "...seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty..." And then there's Psalm 110, "...sit at my right hand." So already there in the introduction there, the third verse, we see Psalm 110 and verse 1 is clearly the words from Psalm 110, verse 1, are clearly used.

And When our author says, this is the main point, as by the end of this week it should be abundantly clear to us, he's basing this main point on Psalm 110, as we'll see, verse 1 and verse 4.

We have such a high priest, Like we've been talking about, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

Now I'm going to just spend a teeny bit of time on the context of this statement here, just a couple slides, and then I'm going to ask the question, how are we doing?

Just before it in Hebrews 7.28, notice here, this is the context.

It says, "...the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son who has been perfected forever." The important words here, which I obviously have underlined, I mean for my purposes right this second, are the Word of the oath.

So, obviously, the Old Testament priests were appointed by men, but the Son was appointed to His priesthood by the word of the oath.

So we've already seen Psalm 110, verse 1 was quoted.

Now we go to Psalm 110, verse 4, and we see the oath that it's referring to.

There it says, "...the Lord has sworn..." The Lord has taken an oath, okay?

You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Here we see, so that was, so here's Hebrews 7, 20 and 21 in its full context here.

Notice here, Inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath..." So Jesus was not made a priest without an oath.

"...for they have become priests without an oath.

But he with an oath, by him who said..." Psalm 110, verse 4, "...the Lord has sworn and will not relent, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

So what we've said so far is that we pointed out that in the book of Hebrews it's the author's steady purpose to let God Himself speak, His own word speak.

And he does this by quoting the words of God that we have, the Old Testament Scriptures.

And we've said that the main point, by the author's own words, is that we have a high priest who has paid the price and who meets all the qualifications, and these are some of the details that are going to be dwelt upon in this book, to be our high priest.

And we've said that He was made high priest by an oath.

Okay, I have a couple more slides, and we'll be done with our introduction to today's.

02 Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

Father in heaven, just thank you so much for your presence here.

Thank you for these dear, precious people.

Please Enlighten us and inspire us as we study Your Word today.

Alright, so a quick review from yesterday, especially of the enthronement verses.

We notice that right in the introduction, Jesus' enthronement, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, is mentioned.

Everything in that introduction is important and is built upon from there.

So we noticed among the 7 verses quoted in Hebrews chapter 1, the first 1 is from Psalm 2, Psalm 2 verse 7, if I'm not mistaken, but certainly from Psalm 2.

I have begotten You.'" And we looked at Hebrews 5 and also the book of Acts to see how the New Testament church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit understood this verse.

They did not understand it in some kind of, you know, coming forth or being created, anything like that, but they applied it to Jesus' resurrection and Jesus' enthronement.

We mentioned yesterday that in the book of Hebrews, as also in the New Testament to some degree, especially in the book of Hebrews, the resurrection and the enthronement are looked upon as 1 event.

Now, when I say enthronement, just to say, as I mentioned yesterday, I'm talking about when Jesus returned to heaven as a conqueror, and the heavenly welcome which finally came to his sacrifice being accepted, and he taking his place at the right hand of God.

As we said yesterday, this is the main point of the book of Hebrews, because it's written for the encouragement of the discouraged.

You can see that in various verses throughout the book of Hebrews.

And then, and so, Psalm 2, verse 7 is well known as an enthronement psalm.

This was a psalm that was used at the time when Israel's king would be enthroned.

So this psalm is used and applied, of course, to the enthronement of all enthronements.

And because, again, the throne of Israel was the throne of God.

And then from Isaiah 2, chapter 7, And then from, I want to say Isaiah, draw on a blank, no, 2 Samuel chapter 7, or 1 Samuel chapter 7, sorry, 1 Samuel chapter 7, "'I will be to him a father, he shall be to me a son.

This is being quoted to point us to the enthronement of Jesus.

And here again, this is at the time that The Lord was telling David that Solomon will be the 1 to build his house.

And he talked to him, he told David that he will establish Solomon's kingdom, his throne will be forever and ever.

And that he will be to Solomon a father and Solomon will be a son.

Well, again, this is literally an enthronement, right?

And so here it's applied to Jesus' enthronement in eternity.

Yeah, I, you know, you can blame everything for the next year or so, you can blame everything on COVID, right?

I'm not even sure I quoted this yesterday, I don't remember, but here it says, it's so plain, to the Son he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

I mean, that's, therefore God, your God is anointing with the oil of gladness more than your companions.

So these verses all pointed to the enthronement, that is, when Jesus returned as a conqueror to heaven, as he himself said in Revelation, that he overcame and sat down with his Father on his throne.

Now Hebrews 1.13, the last of the 7 verses quoted, quoted from Psalm 110, verse 1, as chapter 1, verse 3 was an allusion, at least, to Psalm 110, verse 1, but to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand, do I make your enemies your footstool?

Here is the early church declaring that the humble man from Galilee has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And of course, okay, I didn't even put Hebrews 8, verse 1, which tells us that Jesus' enthronement is the main point of everything that's been set up to that.

And we noticed yesterday that those 7 verses were book-cased, if I can put it that way, or sandwiched by 2 verses that say the same thing, or 2 lines that say the same thing, Hebrews 1.5, but to which of the angels did he ever say?

Hebrews 1.13, but to which of the angels has he ever said?

So they enclose those 7 verses as sort of a literary setup.

Saying, hey, this is the beginning of a section, this is the end of a section here.

You got the 7 quotes there in the middle.

And I say that, okay, And then after that came the exhortation, Hebrews 2, 1-4.

You know, you should be really listening to this son.

And then after the exhortation, He comes back to the comparison of Jesus with angels, right?

There's an exhortation, but he comes right back.

In chapter 1, he is comparing Jesus to the angels.

For he has not put the world to come, and we talked about this verse yesterday, he's not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels.

And It's important to remember that this is a present tense, which we're talking about.

What do you mean this is what you're talking about?

All the way through chapter 1, this is what we've been talking about.

Not this present world, but the world to come.

That is 1 of the points, 1 of several points, that helped us to realize that Hebrews 1, verse 6, which said that all the angels of God worship Him, was spoken by the Father regarding Jesus at the time of His enthronement.

1 of the most beautiful verses in all the Bible to me.

And we'll be able to see a rerun of that, I'm positive.

Because they were holding back, They were waiting until Jesus' sacrifice was ratified.

They were literally waiting to worship Him because Jesus held them back.

That the angels wanted to worship Him and adore Him.

As soon as He came back, He actually held them back.

And then the Father said, Let all the angels of God worship you.

I want you to notice that the same literary method is used in chapter 2.

Chapter 2, verse 5, "...for He has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels." Hebrews 2.16, "...for indeed He does not give His help to angels, but He gives help or aid to the seed of Abraham.

So these 2, these are again your sandwiches, your bread on each end of a sandwich.

So it's telling us what's in between those 2 verses is a unit, just like in chapter 1.

In other words, you have a piece of bread here, right?

Then you have, I don't know, sesame oatburger on there, and tomato, and everything, and then you have the outer piece of bread, right?

That's what these 2 are, 2 outer pieces of bread holding together what's between them.

So we know this is a unit that goes together.

Well, I can tell you, when it says to give aid, the word literally means to take hold of.

However, What you say, what you said, that He took man's nature, is clearly enunciated in other verses in Hebrews.

So These 2 chapters go together, chapter 1, chapter 2.

They both have their units that I just pointed out.

Chapter 1 is talking about Jesus' enthronement as the Son, right?

Chapter 2 is filling us in on Jesus' humanity.

04 Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

Father in heaven, thank you again for the privilege of studying your Word and specifically this book of Hebrews today.

Thank you for this wonderful group of people that we have here.

We ask for your gracious, merciful presence to help us and bless us as we begin now.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, so, in Hebrews 1.3, we have the first mention of Jesus' priestly ministry, mention of His purging of sin.

And then in chapter 2, the name High Priest is used.

And again in chapter 4, the name is used, and his wonderful priesthood is referred to.

And then chapter 2, sort of at the end there, we're again pointed to our high priest, verse 17 specifically.

He had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.

And then we have, in most of chapter 3 and 4, we have this exhortation section, ending with a transitional section, starting there in verse 14.

So seeing then, transitional section, that seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted like as we are." And then we're encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace because of those things.

And then we're ushered into chapter 5, which is where we're starting today.

I'm just going to look at a few things, and then I'm moving on to chapter 7.

So then in chapter 5, for the first time, we have the introduction of the— and Notice he doesn't use the word high priest here because he's quoting from Psalm 110, which does not use the word high priest, but simply the word priest.

And he remains faithful to what he's quoting.

But for the first time we have introduced the Order of Melchizedek.

You know, we're going to be talking about him today.

And then of course, the tasty death for every person that Jesus experienced, the learning obedience by the things which he suffered, and the becoming, therefore, high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Again, quoting from Psalm 110 and verse 4.

And then he says, our author goes on to say, after mentioning Melchizedek, "...of whom we have much to say and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." And because of the dullness of their hearing, there comes an exhortation.

Which lasts all the way to chapter 6, verse 12.

He's talking about, he introduces the priesthood of Melchizedek, And then he says, we have much to say, but you have become dull of hearing, therefore it's hard to explain.

And so, as we're going to see, then, he's going to have this exhortation, and then finally he's going to come back to talk about Melchizedek, so you know where we're at here.

And you can read that whole thing, the whole exhortation, if you want to.

So then the last 2 verses of the exhortation series, verse 11, he says, "...and we desire that each 1 of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end." So He commends them the way they were, but now they have fallen back.

And so we're commending you that you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." So they had become sluggish, or he was concerned they would become sluggish in imitating those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

And what he's going to do now is use Abraham as an example of an individual who, through faith and patience, inherited the promises.

And I want you to first know that the word in Hebrews 5, verse 11, and the word in Hebrews 6, verse 12, is the same Greek word.

So they had become lazy in hearing and were in danger at least of becoming lazy in imitating those who through faith and patience inherited the promises.

And we should say, we don't want to be lazy in hearing, right?

We want to have an experience with God's Word.

We want to have our hearts warmed in the devotional sense as we study God's Word.

You know that then on the road to Emmaus, their hearts burned within them as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them.

Sometimes we're so busy, or Sometimes we have problems with our attitude or whatever.

So we don't want to be lazy in hearing, and we don't want to be lazy in imitating Those who through faith and patience inherited the promises.

So then, speaking of Abraham, verse Hebrew 615 says, and so after he, after Abraham, we'll be looking at the verse or 2 before this in a second.

But after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

So by faith and patience, he obtained the promise.

All right, so now what's going to take place is a transition back to Psalm 110, verse 4, which, by the way, mentions Melchizedek.

So remember, we left off, he said, after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have much to say and hard to understand because you have become dull or lazy of hearing.

And then he went off on this exhortation.

So now is his opportunity, having mentioned Abraham, Because Abraham's experience had a correlation with Psalm 110, verse 4, in that the Lord swore, made an oath to Abraham, and There is an oath in Psalm 110, verse 4.

So this is his opportunity to get back to Psalm 110, verse 4, back to Melchizedek.

And I'm going to show you this right now.

I just told you ahead of time what's going to happen here.

So he said, for when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no 1 greater, he swore by himself.

So he took an oath, obviously, saying, surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you.

So Genesis 12, Genesis 15, God promised Abraham certain things.

But in Genesis 22, after Abraham was willing to offer Isaac offer Isaac, his only begotten son, so to speak.

And This is what it says in Psalm 110, verse 4.

So this author recognizes this, and he really without much of a, it's not real clear, but he transitions to Psalm 110, verse 4.

Because what he does is, he says, Thus God determined me to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise The immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath." Here, he's transitioned over to Psalm 110.

And notice there, the immutability of his counsel, which probably is a reference to Psalm 110, verse 4, the Lord has sworn and will not relent.

In other words, the immutability, the unchangeableness of His counsel.

And this counsel, by the way, is the counsel of peace that took place in the days of eternity in the days of eternity when the Father and the Son met together and formed the plan of human redemption.

And here it tells us that the Lord wanted His people to know.

He was determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise that this plan will not change.

Here's the Father and the Son and the counsel of peace, as the Scripture calls it.

It involves Jesus not only leaving heaven, but becoming a human being in fallen nature, and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Here it says, the Lord wanted his people to know, this plan is not going to change.

Series

Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

03 Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Mentorship Matters

05 Building a Culture of Mentorship in the Church

1h 3m

Theodicy

Melanie’s Problem

1h

Evening Plenary

04 Spiritual Weapons for the Crisis Ahead

1h 15m

Creative Outreach for Everyday Life

04 Called to Serve I

55m

What Kept You in the Church

02 What Kept You in the Church

56m

Becoming a Visitor-Friendly Church

03 From Greeting to Serving Part 2

1h 1m

From Home to Eternity

02 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

1h

Understanding Revelation 12-14

03 Revelation 13: The Two Beasts Part 1

1h 1m

From Shame to Grace

05 A Biblical Journey of Healing

1h 1m

Prayer

01 Prayer

58m

The Key to Finishing the Work

When Heaven is Ready

57m

What Kept You in the Church

03 What Kept You in the Church

59m

Sound Doctrine