A Kingdom that Cannot be Shaken

Hebrews 12:18–29

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture. Read first of all: Gen. 4:1–7;

Ex.19:7–22; Mt. 3:4–12;  2 Th.1:5–12; Rev. 20:11–12.

1.         Not all of Scripture is comforting to read and here is a passage that illustrates this fact.

2.         Immediately following the Exodus from Egypt, God met with Moses on Mt. Sinai and issued to him His commandments. All the while those newly set free from slavery in Egypt rebelled and created the “golden calf” and worshipped it. God’s wrath was poured out on these.

3.         The contrast is now for those Jewish Christians, to whom Hebrews is written, they are part of the new Mount Zion, the city of the living God, indeed to the assembly or church of the firstborn and are forever enrolled in the Book of Life.   These are strong words of encouragement.

4.         For varying political and cultural and religious differences, there was yet a temptation to act as did those who worshipped a false god in the wilderness and who thus paid a dear price for their rebellion. Our author does not wish it to be so for his readers.

5.         Some commentators think that there was a kind of ‘shaking’ taking place amongst those he/she is writing to. It is thought that some were either falsely converted or were even walking away from the Christian assembly due to various pressures.

6.         Despite trouble some were experiencing, our author reminds them that the ‘kingdom’ they are part of could not be shaken so then they should continue “to offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” 

Do Not Grow Weary

Hebrews 12:3–17

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture. Also, look at these passages: Genesis 25:19–34, Proverbs 3:1–12, and Romans 12:14–21.

1.        Being a Christian is often compared to being an athlete running a race or a boxer involved in a boxing match. There is the arduous process of training, building up both muscle and skill, then facing real and competition. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

2.        A chief part of the process is looking at the life of Jesus, as we find it in the Gospels. Here, Messiah/Savior stood against incredible hostility, much of it satanically inspired, yet He finished the race and won the greatest prize, and all for us.

3.        Our great Coach and Lord, works with us as we both train for the struggle and engage in a contest that calls for all that we have.

4.        “Discipline” is also involved. When we go adrift, there is a price to pay, and it must be so in order that we learn to endure against great odds. This experience is anchored in the fact that the Father disciples and corrects His sons and daughters. This the author of Hebrews likens to earthly parents who discipline us.

5.        Such discipline, and you may want to look back now and see how you were disciplined, is for our own good no matter how unpleasant it seems in the time.

6.        We are encouraged to gather our strength, get back into the race and the battle. In fact, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the powers of evil, a warfare we cannot win on our own.

7.        Our enemy would like to sideline us, keep us out of the game/work. There are too many who are sitting on the bench without even wearing a uniform, who have a “root of bitterness” in them that may well infect the entire team.

8.        The Word of God calls us to not grow weary, and though we carry on against great opponents, we are to continue to serve and obey our great Coach, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

Hebrews 12:1–2

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.   The author of Hebrews has described those, from Abel, Noah, Abraham, and many more, who lived by faith and were commended by God. Now the readers are addressed.

2.   “Therefore” is a key word here, meaning that as those who went before were faithful, so we are to be as well. And those who went before actually “surround” today’s followers of Jesus and serve as “witnesses” to these now. (We must understand that this does not mean we are to pray to these witnesses nor ask for their prayers.)

3.   Since we today, as in the days of the early Church, are to lay aside every distraction that would hamper our work and compromise our focus. And the image of the athlete comes to the mind of our Hebrews’ author, those who carefully and diligently are running the race. And the “race” is our Christian witness and ministry.

4.   “Sin” clings so closely and this must be laid aside. Here all of us can identify as we constantly battle against the pull of the lure and power of disobedience, the breaking of the Law of our Creator. To do this requires endurance, which every serious athlete is aware of.

5.   And how do we followers of Jesus do this? It is by “looking to Jesus” who is the “founder” and “perfecter” of our faith. He did this by going to the cross, despising the shame (He hung there naked and charged with crime worthy of death), and who is now “seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

6.   Jesus is our strength, our encouragement, our Lord, that one great “Coach” who is urging us on.

Pentecost

Pentecost

Acts 1 – Acts 2

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.   Joel 2:28-29 speaks of a time when the Holy Spirit would be “poured” out on all flesh, men and women alike. Prior to Jesus’ ascension to heaven He directed the disciples  stay in Jerusalem for the arrival of the great promise.

2.   When those early followers of Jesus were gathered together somewhere on the Mt. of Olives, with Jesus present, they asked Him if the kingdom of Israel would now be restored. Jesus then spoke of a coming empowering by the Holy Spirit, which would result in their being His witnesses to the entire world. At that point His ascending to heaven occurred.

3.   At this time there were eleven apostles, due to Judas’ death, and Matthias, who had been with them from the beginning, was chosen to replace Judas. It would seem that with the entire 120 early believers present, likely in the Upper Room, Matthias was chosen to replace Judas. As to the means of selecting, some think by vote, others by choosing one of two stones in a pouch.

4.   Now on the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, and which was one of the great festivals of Israel (see Leviticus 23:15–22 where it is called the “Feast of Weeks.”)

5.   Suddenly there was a powerful spiritual intervention and presence, and the disciples gathered began speaking in tongues, and apparently loudly and wildly. In a way we are not told, this noise was broadcast and a large crowd gathered.

6.   The crowd’s conclusion was that these believers in Jesus were drunk. This set the stage for the first Christian sermon preached, and that by the Apostle Peter.

By Faith

Hebrews 11

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture. (A reading of the first 12 chapters of Genesis will prove to be of value.)

1.          Here we have one of the most beloved and important chapters in all of our Bible. The author of Hebrews is looking back at the faith of those who had gone before, from Abel, and Moses, and likely those who led the Maccabean Revolt.

2.          Faith, the noun, and believe, the verb, are both from the Greek word pistis, and is the center of this chapter. The description of faith (belief) in the first verse means trusting in that which God has promised, of which the core is the salvation we have in Jesus Christ.

3.          Cain, the first born of Adam and Eve, following their expulsion from Paradise, kills the second born Abel who offered a sacrifice more excellent than Cain’s. Abel offered a lamb while Cain offered what he grew from seed planted in the ground, thus prefiguring the crucifixion of the Lamb of God.

4.          The list of those who trusted in their Creator follows: Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and a host of others including David, Samuel, and the prophets.

5.          Though these “Old Testament” faithful did not live to see the completion of the work of God, those things that were promised, they still are commended by God for their steadfast faith.

6.          However, the readers of Hebrews have received something better, these are living after the events of the promised Messiah, namely, the crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Messiah, the Savior of those who trust in Him.

7.          The author of Hebrews, despite the turmoil and trouble of that present age, urges his/her readers to remain faithful to the promises of God that are in Christ Jesus.

The Full Assurance of Faith

Hebrews 10:19–39

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture. Reading the following passages will be of help: Dt.17:2–7; Matthew 27:45–51; 1 Peter 4:7–11; 2 Peter 3:8–13.

1.          To set the scene, the Jewish-Christians living in Rome were subject to persecution by Rome, and this during the reign of Domitian, 81-96 CE. Plus, those family members and friends who were not accepting Jesus as Messiah would have applied pressure to desert the fledgling Christian churches. It was a difficult period to be a follower of Jesus and not unlike today for many Christians around the world.

2.          The author of Hebrews states that these Hebrew believers can have every confidence to enter into the inner holy place because of the shed blood of Jesus. Their salvation is assured, and they must hold fast their hope without wavering.

3.          These Christians are not to neglect meeting together, as some were, and they are to encourage one another especially in light of the fact that the “Day” may come at any time, and this is the Day of Judgment.

4.          Verse 26 seems to suggest that it is possible to lose one’s salvation and over the centuries there have been many resolutions to the seeming problem.

5.          One view is that within the congregations being written to were those who had actually not been truly converted but were present due to any number of other reasons. We may use the term “christianized” to describe this. Anyone who has been a pastor of a church for any length of time will attest to this circumstance.

6.          The Hebrews author reminds his/her readers that after their conversion they had to endure many sufferings, and such had been, as we know, also true of the Neronian persecutions several decades earlier. History tells us many were murdered, tortured, and cast into prisons.

7.          Though some would “shrink back” our author declares that “we are not of those who shrink back.”