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[0:00] Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1 is where we will be this morning. Hebrews chapter 1. Last week we finished up our study through the book of Colossians and as I was praying through really just where the Lord would have us be and thinking through that last couple of weeks, he began to lay the book of Hebrews on my heart and mind. So we're going to start the book of Hebrews this morning. If he allows us to stay in it, then we will because Hebrews is one of those great scripture texts that is so deep but yet is so applicable to our day and age as well. So we will be in Hebrews chapter 1 starting in verse 1 and going down to verse 4 this morning will be our text. I hope that everyone has had a chance to enjoy the last couple of days. I know a few of the ladies got together and had time of fellowship yesterday. A few of the men were able to get together as well. I know there are some who would have liked to have been there but because of work obligations and things of that nature could not be. But I want to thank those who opened up their home and let those groups come in. It was a great time or opened up their field. We can say that.

[1:05] The ladies met in the home. The men we met in a barn lot in the field which was nice as well. So enjoyed our time of fellowship. So thankful for all the work and effort that was put into it and really just it's good to be together as a church family. I want to encourage you to do that as much as you can just to get connected to one another because we constantly need that. And for all of you that were wondering goat is not that bad. Okay. It's not that bad. I may have cooked it a little dry but that was the first time I'd ever cooked goat. So you know it's not that bad. As far as I know everybody that ate goat yesterday is here today. Everybody made it through the night. We're okay.

[1:45] Some of them told me they felt better today knowing that they had tackled the whole eating a goat thing. So it's okay. We made it through it. I'll just leave it at that. I won't go into all the details. I won't give it to you too much but it's not that bad. It's okay. But it wasn't for lack of food that any of us didn't have a chance to be here. So we had plenty of other food as well.

[2:08] If you have your scripture open to the book of Hebrews, if you're physically able and desire to do so, I ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read Hebrews chapter 1, just four verses, verses 1 through 4, I will tell you that in the original language this is one great run-on sentence.

[2:25] So it's not a number of sentences as we have it in our English but in the original text which would have been the Greek text here, it was just one run-on sentence that is not so much of a salutation or an introduction but it is an exaltation. It is the author of the book of Hebrews, we'll get into all the details in just a moment, getting really excited at the very beginning and he just gets carried away.

[2:47] He doesn't really introduce anything, he just starts where we should start and he does so in Hebrews chapter 1 starting in verse 1 saying, God after he spoke so long ago or God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world and he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high and having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than thee. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for giving us this day.

[3:33] Lord, thank you for the opportunity we have of opening up your word. Lord, we thank you for the text that is before us but Lord, we pray that the truth that it contains would captivate us. Lord, that it would call us to attention, that it would call us to yourself and Lord, as we are captivated by it, that we would be moved by it and it would be for your glory and your honor and we ask it all in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Our prayer is a very intentional prayer and our prayer is that we will be captivated by the truth of scripture. Being captivated by something means to have been laid hold of or taken hold of something that seems to be so true that it would move us to live differently.

[4:13] It is more than just a mental acknowledgement or a mental assent that yes, those things are true. It is that you are captivated by something, something that is stirring you and moving you and pushing and prodding you to do something different. J.D. Greer says we do not share the gospel until we are captivated by the gospel. That is, we have to be captive to it knowing that it is the good news for all men then and only then when we begin to share it. I don't think we respond to the gospel until we are captive to the gospel and we are laid hold of by the spirit of God and the word of God and then unfortunately we wrestle against that and try to break loose from that captivation. But this morning we are opening up the book of Hebrews and we want to catch it in its proper context and we want to read it accurately and we want to study every book of scripture that we come to as we do the others and that is in context at the right time. The first thing you need to know about the book of Hebrews is nobody knows who the author is. Okay, you need to know that. There are a lot of Bible scholars and a lot of opinions of people that will tell you that it could be this person or it could be that person but there is no definitive answer as to who wrote the book of Hebrews. A number of people lean towards the author as being Paul himself. But some of the wording and the language and even the use of the Greek language is different from the other writings of Paul. It doesn't seem to line up with much of anything else that Paul has written. Not that I am a Greek scholar but I just from studying these things and understanding that he uses things in a different nature in a different manner. It doesn't seem to line up exactly. We don't know the exact time in which it was written but we do know to whom it was written and that is important for us.

[5:53] The book of Hebrews was written just as the title says to the nation of the Hebrews. It was written to Jewish individuals and it was most definitely written to Jewish individuals who lived outside of the vicinity of Jerusalem and it is because it is full of Old Testament texts. There are a lot of Old Testament references which again reminds us it is written to the Hebrew people because it references the Old Testament quite a bit. Go in your mind intellectually or mentally to other portions of scripture that you know were written to non-Jewish people right. So go to the book of Luke. The book of Luke and even the book of Acts has very few references to the Old Testament because it was written to the most excellent Theophilus who was a Gentile. Go with me to the book of Mark and in the book of Mark you have very very few references to the Old Testament because the book of Mark was written to the Greeks. It was written to people who lived throughout the Roman Empire who were non-Jewish.

[6:46] Now intellectually or mentally if you go to the book of Matthew Matthew is full of Old Testament references because Matthew is a gospel that was written to the Jewish people. Now when we open up the book of Hebrews one thing you will notice is there are a number of Old Testament references. As a matter of fact if we have finished the first chapter we all were going to be met with and the verses that following this are repetitions of Old Testament texts. The Old Testament during the biblical times or during the times of Christ and the years which followed that and which scripture was written.

[7:18] Stay with me I'm giving us some history but history is important right? The Old Testament was only applicable to the Hebrew people. Okay the Gentiles did not see it as an inspired text. It wasn't a way God had spoken to them. The Gentiles weren't basing their knowledge of God based on anything which they had previously read. When non-Jewish people came to Christ they were coming to Christ through New Testament teaching. Okay they were coming with the background of paganism or worshiping false gods or worshiping a plurality of gods. All the Greco-Roman gods. They weren't coming as knowing that there was one true God as the Hebrew and Jewish people were as he had been revealed in the Old Testament. So we know that the book of Hebrews was written to Jewish people and these Jewish people are living outside of Jerusalem. Now let me pause right here and say this because many of us and many in our day and time would say well if the Old Testament was written to the Jewish people and I'm not a Jewish person then the Old Testament must not be applicable to me.

[8:22] And I'm going to say that's absolutely false. The Old Testament has as much authority over us today as the New Testament does because we cannot fully understand the New Testament until we accurately and properly understand the Old Testament. How do you interpret Jesus Christ as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world? By the way a very New Testament verse it is found in the New Testament.

[8:45] How do you understand him as the slain lamb if you do not know what position that lamb takes in the book of Exodus? By the way I was just blown away by this and I'm gonna stop right here and I shared this with my wife earlier in the week. It's one of those things as a pastor and even as a Bible student gets you excited. We know there are a number of sacrifices given in the book of Genesis right? A number of them Abraham builds an altar and he calls upon the name of the Lord. He offers a sacrifice. Cain and Abel offered a sacrifice. God himself offered a sacrifice because he had to skin an animal to clothe Adam and Eve. So we know all this right? We understand the first sacrifice offered was offered by God in the garden when Adam and Eve had sinned, had fallen and because you don't get the skin off of an animal without killing the animal. Let's just go ahead and acknowledge that. If you do that's bad.

[9:27] So God skins an animal and he clothes them with the hide of an animal okay? But does anyone know or can you think and you should? It's important. I saw this for the first time. Maybe you're a lot more attentive to your Bible reading than I am but I was really excited when I finally caught this. I'm thankful the Lord opens it. The very first sacrifice which God commands, the very first sacrifice which God commands says sacrifice this to me. That is he's particular. He says this is what I want is the Passover lamb, book of Exodus. This is the very first one that he is specific. This is the sacrifice I want. The very last sacrifice God accepted was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world who is Jesus Christ on the cross. Isn't that, see, that would have been a great time to go. Isn't that good? Because how do we understand that? God says give me this. Now I know we can go back and say well what about when Isaac was offered up on it because God said offer to me Isaac and he gave this and he found the ram that was slain and the angel of the Lord intervened. I get all that but I'm talking about the one on the national worship level where God says this is the sacrifice you as a people should offer to me was the lamb that was a Passover lamb and then the very last one that he accepts for all the people is the lamb of Jesus Christ. That's why the Old Testament is applicable.

[10:48] Okay now fast forward. Why is the book of Hebrews written to the Jewish people who are outside of the vicinity of Jerusalem? This is something that we don't catch as much but you might because if you were to cross-reference now by cross-reference I mean you run up on an Old Testament passage quoted in the book of Hebrews and go look up that you know because there's a number one or a little letter a and all these little little subscripts there beside those verses and you have a side column or a center column reference and you look that up and you want to read that in the Old Testament a number of you will read that and you'll say well this doesn't read the same and you I would say you're exactly right because every Old Testament reference in the book of Hebrews is a reference from the Septuagint.

[11:26] Now the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. What you have in your Bible from Genesis to Malachi the Old Testament is a translation from the Hebrew. Okay it is the English translation from the original language of Hebrew that's what we want by the way. Okay so we want that that's why if you read an Old Testament quote in the New Testament and cross-reference that in the Old Testament it doesn't seem to read the same that's because the New Testament is using the Septuagint.

[11:52] Now why would they use that? By the way this is good ground. so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so I asked, so Thank you.

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