Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are beginning a new series on the book of Hebrews.

I prefer as a pastor to preach through entire books of the bible, verse by verse, rather than topically as I did last week - establishing spiritual disciplines - so we will go back to that methodology quite often as a church.

I believe that preaching in that way helps me to be faithful to scripture as it was written, not just to pick out my own ideas and feelings and find scripture that fit those.

I believe that has worked out for us so far - as it feels like we have dealt with issues in scripture right on time for things that have been going on in our lives.

So today we begin something new.

We are going to study the Book of Hebrews.

We won’t dive deeply into every verse, though I do believe this book probably warrants that kind of attention.

This will be more of a survey of the letter,we will cover as much of it as we can.

A Christian couple should always refer to scripture when attempting to determine gender rolls, we talked about that a little bit in our bible study on Friday.

So when it comes to morning routines - they should turn to scripture as well.

Women should do their part, but men make the coffee.

It says right here.

Hebrews.

Introduction:

Who wrote it?

We don’t know.

Church history has a list of guesses, but there is no proof.

We give credit to this epistle to the Holy Spirit, to God for providing it for us.

Who was it written to?

Specifically - we don’t know.

Again, there are clues.

It was written to people who were expected to have an understanding of the Septuagint, that spoke Greek.

There are priestly matters dealt with in this book - so it may have been written to priests who converted.

We don’t know for sure who - other than that they were Jews who converted.

When was it written.

- Evidence says that it was written before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

The book of Hebrews.

The original manuscripts title this letter “To the Hebrews” but like the Gospel of John we shorten things up a little bit to just say John… we call this - Hebrews.

God Speaks.

This is an incredible thing.

It is amazing and graceful.

God Spoke through prophets

God speaks through his son

The creator of the universe has decided that communicating with creation is worth his time and efforts.

If he did not speak, we would have no opportunity for salvation.

We would have no opportunity for grace.

God is there, and he is not silent.

We don’t deserve it - it is grace.

Jesus is God.

He is the RADIANCE of God.

He is the Shekinah glory of the old testament

Inherits all things, the Heir of everything.

Means that the things that he said can happen, can happen.

Bigger than the Angels.

There seems to have been an issue with the understanding of angels within the original audience of this letter, which makes sense, there is still a lot of confusion about angels.

Some of that comes from bad country music, and pop culture.

Every time a bell rings ?

FACTS: God created Angels.

You don’t become one when you die, there is not Biblical reference to support that.

We get a new body, but there is no indication that we will suddenly become angels.

Jesus commands them.

They are sent on assignment to serve “Those who are to inherit salvation.”

My understanding is, that is you and me.

The fulfillment of the OT.

God wants to be known.

The first three verses of this contain so many things.

So many doctrinal things, important things for us to understand.

We can dig so deeply into this.

This chapter deals with so many truths that we should understand about who Christ is.

God went through extraordinary efforts to be known.

This letter is part of that.

The old testament - was written for that.

Because God doesn’t change, if you rightly understand something about God from the OT, you rightly understand that about God.

And the old testament was preserved - protected for generations so that we could have it.

If we know those things in our hearts - the world in front of us changes.

If I know that God speaks through Jesus - then I know that I have direct and open communication with the creator of the Universe.

That his will is open to me.

If I know that Jesus is God, that He is Heir to all things and higher than all things… then I know that the things that He has said are truth.

If I know that God has a desire to be known - then I should have a desire to know Him.

And not just in a superficial way.

I should desire to know as much as I possibly can about the creator of the universe.

As I get to know Him, I can communicate who he is - better.

Who is the best person on the earth right now to introduce someone to Eden?

I am.

Because she is my wife.

I know her better than anyone.

I know her fears, her hopes..

I know who she is on the inside - or at least I hope to.