- If we try to summarise the whole of Hebrews in one sentence, we are very much helped by two markers which bookend the central section.
- It turns out that our confidence that Jesus has washed us perfectly clean from sin is the central focus of the book.
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Video cover image by Jared Erondu
Goal
To be able to summarize the whole book of Hebrews in one sentence!
The Book of Hebrews in One Sentence
- The Central Message: A Purified Conscience
- Guilt—the most painful of any emotion
- Getting this truth to sink into our hearts
1. The Central Message: A Purified Conscience
- Two key statements that frame the central teaching.
Hebrews 4:14–16 & 10:19–22
- Therefore since we have a great high priest…
- let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
- Therefore, brothers and sisters… since we have a great priest over the house of God…
- let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings,
because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from a burdened conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.
Heb 8: The Central Climax
- For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.…
- For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.
- Putting it together on one slide:
The Key Point
- 4:14–16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
- 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.
- 10:19–25 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith: hearts cleansed from a burdened conscience and bodies washed
- What has happened in between 4 and 10 that has cleansed and unburdened the conscience?
Hebrews 9
- But only the high priest enters once a year into the inner room, and never without blood which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people…
- The Holy Spirit is making clear that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed as long as the old tabernacle was standing.
- This was a symbol for that time, when gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper.
- They are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings imposed until the new order came.
Hebrews 9 cont’d
- But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things that have come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, (that is, not of this creation),
- and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption.…
- how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God!
2. Guilt—the most painful of any emotion
Guilt—one of the most painful feelings we can have
- Sometimes TRUE guilt—we did something wrong
- Sometimes FALSE guilt—we just feel a failure
- Satan loves to whisper these accusations
- story of mixer
- Pain from regret for past choices in life
Guilt➜How we respond to the pain
- Pay God back by being ultra good!
Paying God back
‘A woman said to me recently, “I don’t know what is the matter with me. I do all I can to serve the Lord but I still feel guilty, and then I feel guilty about feeling guilty!”’
—A Clear Conscience by Ray Stedman
Guilt➜How we respond to the pain
- Pay God back by being ultra good!
- Punish yourself (denial, cutting, Luther:whipping & cold)
- Numb or distract (drugs/alcohol, food, phones, binge…)
- Deny or justify (Nobody tells me what to do. I’m as good as anyone and better than most)
- Externalize (The people that victimize me are to blame! They should be punished, not me!)
- Anxiety/depression (I don’t want to think about all that stuff)
- Physical pain/sickness (Deep stress takes its toll on the body)
- How were the Hebrews responding?
- Slipping back into trying to do all the O.T. laws dead works
- Hard hearts of unbelief: Deny/justify – slip away from God because we think we don’t need Jesus
- Probably others as well
- How to summarize the book in one sentence:
Hebrews in Two Sentences:
- Jesus will cleanse you from every tiny thing you have done wrong (or even think you have).
- It is his joy to do this, and to welcome you perfect in the presence of God.
- Oh, but wait a minute, doesn’t Hebrews have a verse that pretty much says that?
Hebrews 12
- Keep our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith.
Because of the sake of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame,
and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews in one Sentence
Look to Jesus, your perfecter,
who for joy, washed away all your imperfections at the cross,
and welcomes you from the throne of God.
3. Getting this truth to sink into our hearts
- How can we get hold of this truth?
- Logically believe it is true
- Soak in the images, so rich in Hebrews
Aaron
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Hebrews 9
- Now the first covenant, in fact, had regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary.
- For a tent was prepared, the outer room, which contained the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves; this is called the “holy place”.
- Behind the second curtain there was a tent called the “holy of holies”.
- It contained the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered entirely with gold. In this ark were the golden urn containing the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
- And above the ark were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Now is not the time to speak of these things in detail.
- So with these things prepared like this, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their duties.
- But only the high priest enters once a year into the inner room, and never without blood which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.
- This was a symbol for that time, when gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper.
- They are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings imposed until the new order came.
- But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things that have come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, (that is, not of this creation),
- and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption.
- how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God!
- And so he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, since he died to set them free…
…
- For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (a representation of the true sanctuary) but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us.
- And he did not enter to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own.
- Otherwise he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Chapter 10
- Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,…
- let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from a condemning conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.
- And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy.
NET
- You have a choice:
Law (Heb 12:18–19)
- …a burning fire
- and to darkness
- and to gloom
- and to a whirlwind
- and to the blast of a trumpet
- and to a voice uttering words such that those who heard begged to hear no more.
Enjoy Jesus: (Heb 12:22–24)
- But you have come…
- to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem
- and to myriads of angels
- and to the feast-gathered assembly of the firstborn children, who are enrolled in heaven
- and to God, the judge of all
- and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made fully perfect,
- and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant
- and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better…
- Let the joy motivate you.
Hebrews 4
- Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
- For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
- Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
Concluding prayer
Now may the God of peace
who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
equip you with every good thing to do his will,
working in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever. Amen. (13:20–21)
Hebrews in one Sentence
Look to Jesus, your perfecter,
who for joy, washed away all your imperfections at the cross,
and welcomes you from the throne of God.
Hebrews 10
- Therefore, brothers and sisters,
since we have authorization for free access to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the fresh and living way that he opened up for us, through the curtain—that is through his flesh,
- and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
- let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings,
because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from a burdened conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. - And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy.
