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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points, 1st Quarter 2022. In These Last Days: The Message of the Hebrews

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 The Letter to the Hebrews and to Us

02 The Message of Hebrews

03 The Promised Son

04 Jesus, Our FaithFul Brother

05 Jesus, the Giver of Rest

06 Jesus, the Faithful Priest

07 Jesus, the Anchor of the Soul

08 Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant

09 Jesus, the Perfect Sacrifice

10 Jesus Opens the Way Through the Veil

11 Jesus, Author and Perfecter of Our Faith

12 Receiving an Unshakeable Kingdom

13 Let Brotherly Love Continue

We're on our fourth lesson of this new quarter, the message of Hebrews, and this 1 is titled, Jesus our faithful brother.

It comes primarily, if I'm not mistaken, from Hebrews chapter 2.

All right, and Mark, what are we looking at this week?

Oh boy, well our lesson this week is on the humanity of Christ.

And as a pastor, you know that this is 1 of the few real hot button topics in our church.

And I certainly don't want to, I have to say for our teachers this week.

Yeah, this is going to be 1 of those that could easily get off the rails in your sabbatical class.

And you might have to be a little firmer than other times to just keep things on track and not let fights break out in class.

And maybe fight the inclination not to be the teacher who leads it off the rails either.

And well, I have more to say when we get into, we gotta have a word of prayer and we'll talk about where we're going this week.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for the depth it provides and the understanding we can gain of you and the plan of salvation.

Please now send your Holy Spirit to bless us as we make preparations for Sabbath school classes That all may be done to your glory for we pray it in jesus name.

Amen Okay, our lesson is called jesus our faithful brother and it's taken from the language of hebrews chapter 2 where it says He's not ashamed to call us his brethren What have you and again talking about the humanity of christ?

I want to emphasize that this week's lesson focuses on the human nature of Christ as it relates to his priesthood.

And this 1, like last week we talked about the divinity of Christ and at the end of the lesson I made the point that we can tend to compartmentalize and we need to keep in mind what the focus of Hebrews is We're looking at such a high priest the priestly ministry of Jesus and how these things relate So both chapters 1 and 2 divinity and humanity are leading to this understanding of Christ in this priestly role.

And so before we dive into this, there's a couple statements I want to read here.

In fact, why don't you read that first 1 from First Selected Messages, page 244.

The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us.

It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ and through Christ to God.

He gave proof of his humility in becoming a man.

Now an important part of that is because the human nature of Christ is controversial.

I know a lot of people who just say, let's not even discuss it, let's not study it, let's not, and that's not what we're told to do right here.

Ellen White says this the humanity of the Son of God is everything And then she goes on to say this is to be our study So we're so somehow not to delight and seek out the controversy But nor are we just close our eyes and look the other way.

There's got to be a healthy So we want to I want to avoid getting into the weeds on this topic this week But I do want by God's grace to draw out some important elements and and whether you see totally eye-to-eye or not Let's try to draw from Hebrews 2 like what is the apostle really getting at and what parts of it are significant to?

The role of Christ's reason Now the next text or statement rather is from third selected messages page 126.

Ellen White says the incarnation of Christ has ever been and ever and will ever remain a mystery.

So somehow we should study it but at the end of the study not be surprised when we don't fully grasp it all.

Yeah this is a rich study that's gonna go I imagine into eternity.

At the same time that's not to come away and be like, duh I don't think I learned anything at all about it.

No, there are things that we can draw from it but we will ever be drawn.

Well as to be clear everything about God is a mystery We can study the Bible and then keep studying and studying more.

So our talking points this week number 1 Jesus took our fallen human nature Have we prayed I guess we have All right.

Anytime you ask the question, have we prayed?

Father in heaven, again, we just want to ask that your Holy Spirit would guide our time and give us clarity through your spirit on this topic and how it relates to us in these last days, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

You know what I think happened right there is like you you said that word fallen out loud, you're like, man we need prayer.

We got to step back because you know that's where the bombs are gonna start dropping.

Well, okay, so talking point number 1, yeah, Jesus took our fallen human nature.

But that apparently comes from Sabbath Sunday Monday Tuesday this is a yes this is a huge piece of our lesson this week okay and number 2 Christ's humanity makes our sanctification possible amen and that's in very clear in Paul's language as we go through this in chapter 2.

And then number 3, Jesus is the captain of our salvation.

Those are our 3 talking points this week.

And I have to say, even as a preface, Jesus took our fallen human nature.

I've been in enough discussions on this that that word fallen can mean any number of things.

And I'm not out to try to define every last bit of it, but what I do want to do is draw a distinction between fallen and unfallen.

Because there are those who view Christ as taking the nature of Adam before the fall or some other kind of nature.

Or even a nature of created beings like angels, but unfallen created beings.

Right, and you just can't walk away from that, from Scripture with that understanding, and much less the spirit of prophecy, which we're gonna see.

Now I think, Cameron, I think we would do well, because the bulk of this lesson is based on Hebrews chapter 2 verses 10 through the end of the chapter.

If you just want to pick up there and read verses 10, maybe 10 to 14 and I'll read 15 to 18.

For it was fitting for Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Let's just clarify even there, the him who, for whom are all things and by whom is referring to God the Father, And the captain of their salvation is Jesus the Son.

And He is the 1 that's being made perfect through sufferings, etc.

Verse 11, For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of 1, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren.

In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you.

And again, here am I and the children whom God has given me.

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.

And release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren that he might be merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation For the sins of the people for in that he himself has suffered being tempted.

He is able to aid those who are tempted So this is our the bulk of our passage that we're looking at.

Okay, notice several things there in verse 9 It talks about we didn't read verse 9 it says we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels.

That can only be talking, referring to his humanity.

Well, especially as the next clause says, for the suffering of death.

So the purpose of making lowers is to come for this earthly mission to become 1 of like us.

And though it's not explicit, it's implicit that that would be fallen nature because unfallen nature really isn't subject to death, right?

Adam wasn't in a position where he had to worry about death prior to.

So, And then he himself likewise shared in the same flesh and blood there in verse 14 You've got to look at the language of the Apostle here You he could have easily said he took part in the same flesh and blood.

But you think of his wording he himself likewise Like there's an in the same.

There's an emphatic sense in which he's speaking.

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Series

Talking Points, 1st Quarter 2022. In These Last Days: The Message of the Hebrews

04 Jesus, Our FaithFul Brother

Transcript

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