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Hope Channel

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2022: Hebrews

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Jonathan Walter

Callie Williams

01 The Letter to the Hebrews and to Us

Maybe it was thrilling and amazing in the beginning, but how do we keep at it?

We'll find out on this episode of Inverse Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland Welcome to Inverse a Bible based conversation on life principles Contemporary issues and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

Hey everyone, hope you're having a great day.

We're in the studio with Israel Calley and my friend Jonathan.

And you guys are my friends too, but I don't know why I said that, but we're so happy and excited for a new series, a new quarter, a new 13-week arc on the book of Hebrews.

So we're going to, we've been looking at, we've been looking at different books in the past.

We looked at Romans, we looked at Deuteronomy, we've looked at, what else?

You guys aren't helping, but that's okay.

So if you guys have your Bibles out there, take them out, whether it's digital or analog.

Also go to inversebible.org and you can download a Bible study guide on the book of Hebrews and you can also go to your social media channels and also your podcast, wherever you get your your your your programs and look up Inverse Bible and you can get our programs there as well.

OK, so Jonathan can pray for us and we'll get into Hebrews.

And instead of Hebrews chapter 1, we're going to go to another chapter within Hebrews.

Father, we're so thankful that we have the opportunity again to go deep into the Word.

And this time, the book of Hebrews, we know that you inspired this book.

And so we just pray that as we go through this over the next couple of weeks, that you will give us deep insights into who you are, the ministry of Jesus, and why these things are important to us.

Our Lord bless us now as we start this new quarter, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10, 34 through 36.

For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward, For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise." And can you read that promise, 3738?

For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

So there's some good juice in there, good stuff.

We need to get the context of where the author of Hebrews, which I believe was Paul, I think there's strong evidence for that, why this was written.

And so Israel, can you give us a little bit of background on what's happening in Hebrews?

First of all, the book of Hebrews is, first started off as a sermon.

It's a sermon that I agree with you, I believe it was Paul that wrote it, that he's preaching to a group of people Identified as Hebrews.

We don't really know even who the people are They're going the churches the Christian Church at this time is going through very difficult times.

They've been verbally abused I mean, it's they've it's a suffering church Now the challenges of You normally think that challenges or difficulties will eventually inspire in us renewed faithfulness, but prolonged, you ultimately have the temptation of becoming cynical, right?

You know, and you just get weary and tired, and so Paul is addressing this group of Christians and is saying, look, you have need of patience, endurance, that after you have done the will of God, which is we've done that, you will receive the promise, And then he's quoting from the book of Habakkuk, you know that the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, Jesus says, my soul will not have pleasure in him.

He responds, we're not of those who draw back to perdition, but we, and The key phrase is, we are of those who believe all the way to the saving of the soul.

That word perdition is kind of a hard word, isn't it?

That word perdition meaning lostness, right?

I think of Spanish, to perder, perder, to lose, probably some Latin background.

And we all experienced the pandemic together.

I want to ask you just right off the bat, at least my reaction was, when it first happened, oh, this is going to blow over really quick.

Just a couple of days, couple of weeks and this is going to be like whatever.

Then at a certain point, you had to click over and be like, oh, this isn't going to be quick.

Then we all collectively and depending where all you were around the world, we all experienced different.

And when you clicked over, what resources or what things were you clinging on to?

Because now you have to have a different mode of life, right, then you're like, oh man, what were changes that happened, or what was your state of mind, or what clicked in your life, what happened in your life when that happened?

So I was in Nairobi, Kenya when it happened.

And the first day there was a case in Nairobi is the same day Nairobi shut down.

It was like, it's here, everything is closed.

And I still kind of thought it was just going to last a few weeks, because right before it started, my husband and I actually went to Cape Town, and there were signs about COVID, but it was very China-centric.

But after my husband's job shut down and that he had to work from home, and he still is working home to this day, I was like, that's kind of weird, but it'll probably just still blow over.

And then it was actually in May when all of the airlines had shut down, no international flights in or out, and there was no coming back online date.

It was just like we're closed for this foreseeable future.

That's when I was like, oh this is gonna take a while.

So what state of mind were, what did you cling to when you realized that we're going to be here for a while?

Did you do anything different that you realized, oh, this isn't quick.

I'm not talking about masks or like what physical, then what spiritual or what psychological things did you cling on to that changed in the long run?

Yeah, I think, well, 1 thing that I tried to be very grateful for from the beginning was it was my first year of marriage And now I have my husband home all the time.

And other people kind of complain about having their spouses home all the time, but it's really great, at the beginning, at least it was for me.

And then you follow biblical counsel there.

Sebastien Braxton

02 The Message of Hebrews

If you cut to the chase, what's the whole point of it all?

Tell me right now on this episode of Inverse.

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Hey friends, my name's Justin Kim and you're watching Inverse and we are looking at the Book of Hebrews, 1 of the most enigmatic letters of the New Testament, but full of juice and healthy stuff for us, especially for our spirituality.

We're here in this studio with Callie, Sebastian, and Jonathan, and we spent 1 week, last week, talking about the context of which Hebrews was written in.

It's important to know the context and very, very, very applicable to our current day and age.

And now we're going to go, we're kind of working backwards here, yeah?

We're not going through chapter 1, 2, 3, 4.

And we're gonna just do aerial scans of Hebrews in this episode, and looking at what's the point.

I can just watch this 1 episode, and not watch the rest, no, keep watching.

So Callie, if you can pray for us, and then we'll read the text afterwards.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the gift of this book of the Bible.

We thank you for what you've already taught us, and we thank you for the message you have put here.

May we see it clearly, may we see it how it applies to our life, not just to store in our minds, but that we may see you more clearly and see your love for us better.

We ask and pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 8, verse 1 through 6.

And, Sebastian, can you read that for us?

Now, this is the main point of the things we are saying.

We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected in not men.

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.

Therefore it is necessary that this 1 also have something to offer.

For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle.

For he said, See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

We really want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org and download our Bible study guide, especially on the book of Hebrews.

And also go to hopetv.org slash inverse and you can look at past episodes.

Especially we encourage you to go to the last episode to get great context.

Now if you don't have time you can put us on pause and if you can't pause us we're going to ask Jonathan this question.

It was good because of great juiciness there.

Yeah, Hebrews, you know, we believe was written by Paul to the believers during a time between 45 and 70 AD.

So this is about, you know, we don't know exactly when, but probably around, you know, 15 to 30 years after Jesus went to heaven.

So they went for explosive, explosive growth in the Book of Acts.

And and Paul preached all over the world.

But then persecution takes place And these believers are going through challenging times.

Then you have new generations of believers who never saw Jesus.

And so Paul is now speaking to them, trying to encourage them, to remind them that Jesus, the 1 that they believe in, is truly the Messiah.

He really is the 1 that, you know, it was not just, you know, a 1 thing that, oh, it sounded really good.

And so, you know, the book of Hebrews is written to the Hebrews.

So the Hebrews were the ones who, you know, for over a thousand years were holding onto the oracles to the truth that God has revealed to them about the coming Messiah and now Paul's saying, yes, he really is the Messiah.

And so he was reminding them of this importance and what that means for their lives.

And that they should hold on and endure during this time of persecution, endure and just a little longer.

He's reminding them of these beautiful truths.

And the book of Hebrews is theologically very rich, but It is not just for us to theorize about.

It is very practical because this rich theology leads to the point of where you decide, I'm going to apply it to my life.

Jesus really is my brother, my mediator, my high priest.

And this gives us a great direction for the next upcoming 10 weeks or so to attack each chapter 1 by 1 and to really understand this.

There's something about persecution and strife and hardship and trial when it's short-term or when it's punctiliar, you can just overcome it, right?

Or you experience fear, anxiety, anger in that moment.

But there's something different when it's long term.

And we spent long term talking about pandemic or especially as Christians who believe they're living in the last days, about waiting for Jesus' second coming, right?

This long term waiting, that's another form of hardship in the sense of indifference, malaise, of bitterness, not caring kicking in, a different temptation altogether.

Let me ask Callie and Sebastian, when you guys see, when you think of the book of Hebrews, what's immediately the first thing that comes to mind?

Maybe some people it's coffee, like Hebrews or tea.

And let's start from a biblical perspective.

What's the first thing that pops into your mind?

I think the first thing that comes to my mind is like a detailed breakdown of who Jesus is.

And because we say a lot of things that are absolutely true that, you know, Jesus is our Lord, He's our Savior, and other places, though, it just leaves it at that.

But here's kind of like, let me really explain to you what Jesus did.

And even though we've kind of said that Hebrews isn't just a theological book, and I agree that it isn't, there's lots of practical beauty there, but it is kind of lofty in certain places and very theological and very framework centric, this is kind of the full picture.

So to me, it's an expansion on when we say, yeah, Jesus saved you, Jesus did this for you, Jesus is this way, this is like, let me really explain it to you in all these different angles.

Yeah, I think when I look at the book of Hebrews, I see it as, you know, Jesus is kind of this center figure and we're looking at different dimensions of who He is.

From being a human being like me, from being greater than the angels, right, in chapter 1, to being a better high priest, a better mediator, a better king, like all these different things, it's essentially that Jesus is a better version of everything that you as a Hebrew look back in your tradition to see.

Better or more than or comparison, greater than and more than.

Chapter 1, Jesus is better than the angels.

Chapter 2, he's better than human beings.

03 Jesus, the Promised Son

For God so loved us that He gave us His only begotten Son.

We'll find out on this episode of Inverse.

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, A Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Hey friends, we are in a study on the book of Hebrews.

So I want to encourage you to get your Bibles out, digital or analog, and go to Hebrews chapter 1.

We're going to look at the Christology, the study of Christ's nature.

It's going to be an awesome study, but not just all up here.

We're going to bring it down and see how that has effect for all of us.

I want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org and download our Bible study guides.

We know Hebrews can be a little bit of a difficult book, but those study guides can help you and they immerse yourself into the verse.

And inside the Inverse Studio, we have in their chairs, we have Israel, Sebastian and Callie.

For a couple of weeks we've been looking at the context of Hebrews.

That was a great episode on why and to what occasion Hebrews was written.

And then last week we looked at the theology, the main message of Hebrews.

So now, after all that talk, after all that blabber, we're actually going to get into God's Word and go to chapter 1 and read.

And I think verse 1 through 4 is probably 1 of my most favorite verses in all of Scripture, very, very lofty, very, very profound.

1 of the great Christological passages of the New Testament.

And you have to say that with a British accent.

And so we can juice a lot out there and then some.

So Israel, if you can read verses 1 through 4, but actually before you read, especially pray for us.

And we never want to read Scripture without the Holy Spirit's power.

Heavenly Father, we bow before You, Lord, in gratitude, recognizing that we are reflecting on things that are too wonderful for us.

And yet we have the privilege to be here with all those who are watching, to be able to dive deep into Your Word specifically on the person of Jesus.

Father, we understand that we cannot even begin to scratch the surface of how wonderful and amazing He is, but we pray that You would put words in our mouths that would inspire others to love Him and to respond with devotion and complete surrender.

Chapter 1 of Hebrews, verse 1 through 4, please Israel.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has By inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." Yeah, awesome.

Man, this is just 1 of those like, ah, you know, like these opening remarks.

In many ways, very different from any other of the letters of the Bible.

I believe that we discussed in the previous episode that this is, it looks like it was a sermon format, yeah?

Man, that is an introduction to a sermon.

And in other parts of Hebrews, Paul later says, we don't have time, because of lack of time, I cannot speak of Barak.

Well, if you're writing a letter, why are you lacking time?

But maybe 1230 is coming up and the potluck time coming up.

So a sermon motif probably most likely was.

But Callie, when you read a passage like that, what is your first impression upon reading such lofty high Christology?

Well, my first is kind of like I do in other Pauline epistles, is to really try to remember, try to focus where the commas are.

Where the different thoughts are, because it's so much in 1 sentence.

And even if it's not a run-on sentence, you're like, even just the first part, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.

So in various times and various ways, God spoke in the past.

And so it's even just each of these thoughts, because when it's 1 sentence, not to be all grammatical about it, but it's 1 sentence, it's supposed to be like 1 thought.

But He was like, here's 17 thoughts in 1 small package.

And so it's easy to just be like, and then this is over.

So that was just a depending clause, right?

And then so the main thought is that God is speaking to us.

So if we connect this to the chapter, or not chapter, episode 1, I mean, they were despondent and they were getting persecuted.

And here, right at the beginning, at the endurance episode.

So right at the beginning, right when the gate opens, He's like saying, God spoke to us at various times in the past.

And this is kind of the first thing that you see as we talked about, you know, in the previous episode about Jesus being better.

And He starts off by saying that He's a better revelation than the prophets, right?

And he's like, yeah, he spoke to you in different ways at different times, but in these last days.

So the time context gives you the fact that God saved His supreme revelation for the time in which the stakes were the absolute highest in which the minutes were running out.

So, if you didn't get it through Elijah, if you didn't get it through Moses, Zephaniah, Hosea, Ezekiel, Daniel, guess what?

If you reject this revelation and me speaking through him in these last days, then there's nothing else I can say.

And it almost takes you back to, you know, Isaiah 5, where God says, what more can I do to my vineyard that I have not done to it, right?

Like, there's nothing else I could have done.

And that's what Christ, as a supreme revelation, His own Son, is, is really starting off the book to say, hey, before I even get to any other words, this is the supreme revelation through Christ.

You know, I appreciate the verse too, says that it has in these last days.

The last days, so Jesus' coming was the last days?

04 Jesus, Our Faithful Brother

How many of you have that 1 sibling that you're totally embarrassed about?

We'll talk about it on this episode of Inverse.

Most families that I know of have that 1 sibling or maybe that 1 niece or nephew that you just don't talk about, the black sheep of the family that you're embarrassed and they're doing this or whatever and you just don't want to really incorporate them into your personal narrative.

We're going to talk about that in the book of Hebrews.

We are in the studio with Sebastian, Israel, Jonathan and My name is Justin and you are on Inverse.

We want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org where you can download our Bible study guides.

This quarter we are studying the book of Hebrews.

So with us, you want to be reading, we'll be going to chapter 2, and we are on episode 4 entitled Jesus, Our Faithful Brother.

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Series

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2022: Hebrews

12 Receiving an Unshakeable Kingdom

Transcript

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Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 The Letter to the Hebrews and to Us

27m

02 The Message of Hebrews

27m

03 Jesus, the Promised Son

27m

04 Jesus, Our Faithful Brother

27m

05 Jesus, the Giver of Rest

27m

06 Jesus, the Faithful Priest

27m

07 Jesus, the Anchor of the Soul

27m

08 Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant

27m

09 Jesus, the Perfect Sacrifice

27m

10 Jesus Opens the Way through the Veil

27m

11 Jesus, Author and Perfecter of Our Faith

27m

12 Receiving an Unshakeable Kingdom

27m

13 Let Brotherly Love Continue

27m

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