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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

We are now on the very first lesson of the first quarter of a brand new year.

And the message that we're dealing with, in fact, the title of this 1 in these last days, the message of Hebrews.

This is, there's not a bad book of the Bible to be clear, but Hebrews is 1 of those just rich, just, there's so many layers and things you could study about and the centrality of Christ and his work now.

And anyway, we're going to get into all that, but I'm excited about this quarter's study.

And you put together the talking points for this week's study, so we're going to go through those in just a moment.

But before we do that, we should start with a word of prayer, and then you could kind of introduce us to where we're headed.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to study your word, to do it in a Sabbath school class dynamic.

Lord, we want iron to sharpen iron, and we want to see Jesus clearly in this word.

So bless us now as we embark on this quarter's studies, and this lesson in particular, Lord, help us to understand the context of Hebrews and to launch into a great quarter worth of study as your spirit leads for a prayer in Jesus name.

Well, I have to say, as we're embarking upon a new year, Happy New Year to our viewers.

You know, a lot of people don't understand or realize that Sister White has actually encouraged believers to make New Year's resolutions.

You know, we think it and Something on your mind you want to share with the world today?

I won't get into all, but my point is, you know, there's nothing better than the book of Hebrews.

If you're starting out the new year and saying, this year I want to be more faithful to the Lord and I want to reach more souls for Christ.

Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary is of all things you could focus on to achieve those goals.

And we're going to see that through this quarter's lessons.

Now, this week, as every time we start a new book, there's an intro to the book itself.

And so this lesson is called The Letter to the Hebrews and to Us, highlights some different things about the book of Hebrews.

Now something interesting about this quarterly, and it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, is that the principal contributor to the Quarterly itself, Felix Cortes, is different from the 1 who wrote, and maybe this is the case every time and I haven't noticed it, but I noticed that the teacher's notes and the outlines are put together by Dr.

Or actually, that's the seminary at the religion department of Andrews University.

A pastor gets up and gives a sermon just as a pastor and you've done this I'm sure and maybe you do this as Sabbath school teachers too.

It's like I would have probably preached that different, you know, so I mean I'm guessing we're gonna get 2 studies on Hebrews.

You had the regular lesson itself But then you had the study notes that were put together by Dr.

Gallos And so you had the Cortez version in the 1 the callous and I'm guessing that there's a whole lot of Symmetry between them.

That's there might be some Emphasis exactly and that's 1 thing that we'll notice this week because as I this week's lesson I took a chunk out of it out of Dr.

So I, of course the lesson serves as an introduction to the book of Hebrews and there are 3 talking points for this week.

That's interesting, you said Paul is the author, not could be or might be.

And I've taken that from Sabbath Afternoon and from Dr.

And then finally, number 3, We Are the Audience of Hebrews, also taken from Thursday's lesson.

There's a chunk in the middle that you're just going to have to read and study your lesson.

So apparently, you can just study Sabbath and Thursday and be ready for this week's lesson.

As I said, now I went into the teacher's notes and you'll find a whole wealth of information and there's only so much you can cover.

Again, we're just introducing the book of Hebrews and these were points that I thought would be helpful to us.

And to be clear, Talking Points is primarily for teachers and those who actively participate in Sabbath School, so not everyone has the Teacher's Edition.

But if you have the Teacher's Edition, it has that added information.

There's other ways to get it besides just the printed.

The official GC Sabbath School app, and maybe you can put something on the screen here, you can get all the editions.

You can get the easy reading edition, you can get the teacher's notes and all that stuff, and so you have access to that.

It's not like the teacher's notes are a special kind of thing.

Exactly, a secretary had to be a teacher.

You have to have a secret code or something.

All right, so let's jump into the talking points though.

Now, in the early Christian church, and I know that you've probably experienced this in your pastoral ministry, in recent days, and I mean years, decades even, there's been a question over the author of Hebrews.

It wasn't the case in the early Christian Church.

In fact, if you look at the King James Version, it says the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, right?

Gallison, his teacher's comment says, why don't you read that little note from the teacher's comment.

Paul's authorship of Hebrews is indicated by the conclusion of Hebrew by the inclusion of Hebrews among the Pauline epistles in the Greek Manuscripts in the earliest extent or surviving once we still have manuscripts dating around ad 200 Hebrews is placed right after the epistle of Paul to the Romans.

The oldest manuscripts we have back even to 200 AD were already including Paul.

But just the idea that when they put it together, they just under, that was the understanding of the early Christian church.

Now, over through the years, that began to come into question, primarily because the literary style doesn't match most of Paul's letters.

The phrases he uses don't match up with some of the other epistles.

But the lesson highlights that, as well as Dr.

Gallat's teacher's notes, that 1 of the probably the main reasons that you may find the discrepancy is that it's fairly obvious when you read through that Hebrews originally was a sermon, not a letter.

In fact, unless in the introduction there on Saturday afternoon, It says, it has been argued that Hebrews is the earliest quote, complete Christian sermon that we have.

And it brings up in there, Hebrews 13, 22, where the apostle Paul says, and I appeal to you brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.

And that phrase is used in the scripture, in fact, by Paul back in, I think it's Acts 13.

02 The Message of Hebrews

Pastor Howard, we're now on the second lesson of our message of Hebrews study.

Second lesson of the new year, Pastor Cameron.

That's right, and I'm loving this study already.

I love everything about the book of Hebrews and I'm excited for where we're headed here.

What in your estimation are, well, there's a whole lot to cover in this, not just this Sabbath, I mean this whole week's study.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that each week we're going to say, man, there's so much to cover.

And that's a good problem to have, but we're gonna try to get everything within our allotted time, so we need to dive right in.

But before we do that, let's go ahead and pray, and then we'll get into our lesson.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the privilege of studying your word together.

And Lord, now as we devote some time to preparation, please give us insights from on high.

Send your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.

I was gonna say, I thought you were gonna say, each week it's gonna be, we're gonna say, well, there's so much to cover that we're gonna cover something that wasn't in the quarterly this week because there were some things in this week in fact we just had a question on our talking points Q&A now if you haven't watched our talking points Q&A That's where we answer questions that Sabbath school teachers have about the lesson, putting it together, teaching the lesson, or other questions.

1 of the questions came up about what happens if you disagree with the quarterly.

Again, we disagree sometimes can be a strong word.

I don't want to say I necessarily disagree with the quarterly this week, but the quarterly in this lesson goes in a different direction.

So, and we'll talk about that in a minute.

In fact, we may as well talk about it now and then I'll lay out the talking points.

But there's a longer introduction this week.

Yeah, I was looking through your little talking points because I get a sneak peek of the notes and whatnot and I noticed that it wasn't just a little quote or a little thought, but there's actually, I accused Pastor Howard of sneaking in a fourth talking point this time because the introduction is very essential to where everything is going this week.

That's right Well art our memory text this week is this is the main point of the things we are saying we have such a high Priest, you know And then he talks goes on to say Bruce I mean it versus 1 at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven." Well, so we have such a high priest, that's our memory text.

The lesson is called the message of Hebrews.

We talked last week in our introduction to the book of Hebrews that the book of Hebrews is about the high priest and the ministry of Jesus Christ.

But then the lesson goes in, in fact, Sunday's lesson makes this point It begins with this sentence the main point of Hebrews now We just quoted in the memory verse Hebrews 8 1.

This is the main point We have such a high priest and then the lesson brings it up on Sunday and then it says Sunday's the main point of Hebrews is that Jesus is the ruler who is seated at the right hand of the Father.

So well then it and to its credit it wasn't trying to get away with it.

It says Hebrews 8.1 And so it's interesting that there's...

But it's emphasizing the seated at the right hand and the throne language.

And then the lesson goes into the parallels of the kingdom of Christ and his role as king, which are not incorrect, but I think it detracts from the thrust of Hebrews, which is emphasizing as much as it can be said that Jesus is king.

In fact, I think of Zechariah, and I've referenced it here, Zechariah 6, 13 refers to how Jesus Rules as a priest on his throne.

So the priest and the king are Are not incompatible But the fullness of the kingdom of Christ we know from prophecy for example Daniel chapter 7 Jesus the Son of Man goes before the Father, the Ancient of Days, in the heavenly sanctuary, and in that interaction, receives the kingdom.

And then he comes to receive his kingdom when he comes again the second time.

So there's almost stages of his kingship, if you will.

And so in fact, I would well, maybe you're going to go there, but I would seem like the priesthood of Christ enables the kingship of Christ in a fuller sense, right?

And the book of Hebrews is focusing on the priesthood more than the kingly role of Christ.

So when the lesson went with the kingly role, we're just going to focus a little bit more on the priestly role this week.

And I think there's a statement in Christ in his sanctuary, page 107, that kind of helps blend these 2 together.

It says, as used in the Bible, the expression quote, kingdom of God is employed to designate both the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory.

The kingdom of grace is brought to view by Paul in the epistle to the Hebrews.

By the way, she's unequivocal, Paul in the epistle to the Hebrews.

After pointing to Christ, the compassionate intercessor who is touched with the feelings of our affirmatives, the apostle says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may have 10 mercy and find grace.

The throne of grace represents the kingdom of grace, for the existence of a throne implies the existence of a kingdom.

In many of his parables, Christ uses the expression, the kingdom of heaven, to designate the work of divine grace upon the hearts of men.

So Sister White does use that intercessory priestly role of Christ to talk about it in a kingly way, but she calls it the kingdom of grace as though to differentiate it from the kingdom of glory, which would be the all-encompassing culmination of his rule.

When he enters into his rule and he rolls with a rod of iron over the nations, etc.

And I think something that trips people up is the language there.

For example, in the memory verse, we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

So there's the throne that God's on and Jesus is seated behind beside him and there's this mindset that Jesus is you know he's sent into heaven and he sat right And now he's sitting on a throne with a scepter and he's reigning as a king.

And a lot of people don't understand that that language, seated, and we've talked about it, you find it other places in the New Testament, yet during the stoning of Stephen when he looked into heaven, he didn't see.

So seated doesn't mean Jesus is stuck in a chair and now he can't do anything But it's a position.

That's right a position of authority like he's not the suffering servant on earth anymore He's 1 who has received all power in earth and heaven as he told the disciples there in Matthew 28 and and in that capacity as priest he now is using that power in his intercessory role of the father.

And again, we'll unpack more of that, but what we're going to look at in this week's lesson with our talking points is more of the priestly than the kingly role.

Again, 1 of the reasons for that is that lesson, this particular lesson looks at Hebrews 1 and 2 and the conclusion of Hebrews chapter 2, if you read that, do you have Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17, as Paul concludes his thought, reads 17 right on through chapter 3, verse 1, because the chapter breaks weren't there in the original.

Okay, it says, Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a 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.

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession Christ Jesus Of course, there's more to that but you see that in the very context of chapters 1 & 2 therefore in a concluding statement It was important for all these things to be that he might be a faithful high priest.

And then continuing again in chapter 3, verse 1, therefore consider the apostle and high priest of our confession.

Thus he gets to 8 and says, the main point of the things we are saying.

So those things that you're saying started right there with the opening and 1234, and on through is that Christ is in authority, yes, as a king in the sense of the kingdom of grace, but as a function as a high priest.

And so we're going to see that as we go on in our lesson here.

So what we've chosen to do in Talking point number 1 this week is just basically summarizing Hebrews chapter 1.

And talking point number 1 is Jesus is fully God.

Talking point number 2 is summarizing Hebrews chapter 2, Jesus is fully man.

And finally, point number 3, talking point number 3, Jesus is our representative before his father, and that really is a bulk of where the quarterly goes outside of looking at the kingly role of Jesus.

Monday's lesson talks about the intercessor.

Wednesday and Thursday's lesson talking about that as well.

Anyway, those are our talking points for this week's lesson.

And, of course, we want to encourage our teachers.

If you want to go a different direction, you can do that.

But this is, to me, these were the things that were more the burden of the apostle in presenting what he did in the scripture.

Okay, so number 1, a very simple statement, Jesus is fully God.

Now when we say, like simple statement, Jesus is fully God or Jesus is fully man, there's obviously a lot to unpack in those few words.

Yes, and to be clear, you're not gonna unpack this in a Sabbath school class, every little nuance.

But it's really straightforward when you read in Hebrews chapter 1 Paul does this comparison between Jesus and the angels and He goes back and forth and back and forth and just clearly states how Jesus is greater than the angels He is the Almighty verse 5 says for to which of the angels did he ever say did the father ever say you are my son today?

I've begotten you And again, I will be to him to father and he should be to me a son now there He's drawing a contrast between father and son But then as you go to verse 6 when he again brings the firstborn into the world he speaking of God the father Says let all the angels of God Worship him.

Now nobody gets worship, but the Almighty but here God's giving worship to somebody else.

And then in verse 8 it says, to the Son, He says, and this is God now, to the Son, He says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

And so I remember There was a the late pastor Tony Cerullo was saying, you know He would study with Jehovah's Witnesses and you know They don't believe that Jesus is God and his response was taking this Hebrews 1.8 and he says the father's not ashamed to call him God, why are you?

So this is God calling Jesus the son God.

03 The Promised Son

We're on the third lesson of our first quarter of the brand new year, all about the message of Hebrews.

And this time it's the title of the week's lesson is the Promised Son.

And this week and next week, we're looking at the incarnation of Christ and specifically about his this week's lesson focusing on the divinity side of it.

Well you had to take a couple lessons to get that you know You don't want to dive into the pool.

You got to step into the shallow in first.

Anyway, like I mentioned, this 1 is all about the divinity of Christ.

And what does it mean for Christ to be the very son of God who came to this world?

And there's a lot of good information here.

Well you worked on the outline this week so you need to show us the talking points.

Heavenly Father we are again thankful that we have the privilege and opportunity to study your word together.

I thank you for our many Sabbath school classes that are represented by the viewers here.

And I just ask that you would bless us in this study and may that blessing reverberate to all of your people.

As we continue to seek inspiration through your word, we ask and pray all these things in Jesus name, amen.

All right, anyway, as we've repeated now several times, the book of Hebrews is all about the priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, but in order for him to be the priest that we need, he had to be uniquely suited as the Savior of all mankind to go into that role.

And part of that was his being divine and stepping into humanity.

And So we're not looking at the human nature of Christ so much, we're looking at his divine nature that became him.

Well, we had touched on this in 1 of the last couple of lessons where it started with Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1, we have such a high priest.

And I think the quarterly had kind of taken the first few chapters versus, I believe that all those preceding chapters here, 1 through 7, are laying a foundation, looking at different facets of Christ's qualifications.

It's essentially building a case for Christ to be the only intercessor between God and man.

That's right, So all of this we're studying, it's in that context of setting that foundation.

So let's walk through our talking points.

Talking points number 1 this week is Christ's victory on earth is the fulcrum of all history.

We're going to see that that's the centerpiece and that comes mostly from Sunday's lesson, looking at the term from the last days.

What does it mean that we're in the last days?

Then number 2, talking point number 2, we hear and see God in Jesus.

That's the big rock in the jar, if you will, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday focuses on that.

And then finally, talking point number 3, Jesus is the creator and thus Lord of all creation.

That's from Monday and Wednesday as well.

Christ's victory on earth is the fulcrum of all history.

It's that tipping point, the balance point of all things that happen in history.

Now, if you go to Hebrews chapter 1, which I believe that you're right there.

I think it would do well for us to read the first 5 verses because what I discovered in going through the Talking Points this week, or reading through the lesson in making the Talking Points, was that this week's lesson was essentially a point-by-point discussion, commentary on the first 5 verses of the book of Hebrews.

So I think it would do well to just, if you would, read through those 5 verses please.

Hebrews chapter 1 beginning in verse 1, 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.

For to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

First of all, just from my 30, 000 foot view of this, clearly starting from the divine side down to the human, right?

It starts with God, who at various times spoken times past in these last days has sent his son.

So clearly the impetus is from heaven to earth.

Well, what stands out is you still see, like in verse 4, it says, having become so much better than the angels.

So you're still looking at the humanity of Christ.

But in that context, the apostle, because he's writing to a crowd of people who have seen Jesus of Nazareth.

And so he's trying to emphasize through this that that Jesus of Nazareth, the reason you saw him in the condescended place that he was was because he took that upon himself, but has been exalted because he is 1 with the Father.

Well, and exactly the point is that not only has he exalted because he had missions, he was successful, but he was coming from God to start with.

So he is by inheritance greater than the angels and he earned a thing.

So I think there's a masterful weaving together of these 2 matching or corresponding points of truth that Jesus is fully God and at the same time fully man.

And he's going to make a case for that over this week's lesson and next week's just a little foreshadowing what's coming.

But let's look at that phrase at the very beginning in verse 1 when he says, speaking of God who at various times and in various ways in the time past spoke to the fathers by the prophets, but verse 2 says has in these last days spoken to us by his son.

So Paul here is making a contrast between the way God communicated, you know, back then in times past versus quote, in these last days.

So Paul must have thought they were living at the end of time.

When we hear the phrase, the last days or last day events or something, we automatically from our context think of literally the closing hours or moments.

The apostles just really didn't know and the New Testament writers, they always thought the coming of Christ was going to be imminent.

I do, and I would look up 2 Thessalonians, because this is 1 of those little things we talked about previously.

Just to the left of Hebrews a little bit.

Yeah, in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 3 and 4, he outlines his understanding.

And this is why, remember in a week or 2 ago, we talked about how, why is it important that the Apostle Paul is the author of Hebrews?

Well, because we can know what Paul was thinking about in time events in the last days.

Well, why don't you read verses 3 and 4 about Paul's understanding of the last days.

Yeah, 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 3 and 4, let no 1 deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." And that day that he's referring to is the return of Jesus Christ, right?

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