Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr. Andy Woods: Father, grateful for this morning and a new month. And thank you for the Lord's table. The fellowship meal, the teaching, the worship, all of the things that we're going to do today. And we're grateful to live in a country where we just have the freedom to worship you in spirit and truth. Many Christians around the world don't have that and yet you've given it to us here.

Help us to be good stewards of this opportunity today at Sugar Land Bible Church. I pray you'll be with everything that's going on at Sugar Land Bible Church today from beginning to end. We are in great need, Father, of an understanding from you and only your illuminating ministry can do that. So in preparation for that ministry, as we seek to teach your word today, we're going to take a couple minutes of silence to do personal business with you by way of confession, if need be, so that we can be ready to receive this morning from you.

We're thankful, Lord, for the comprehensiveness of your provision for us. And with everything going on in the culture, we just ask that you'll be with us today, be with tech issues that I've already been alerted to and different things like that. These are big things for us, but they're little things for you. And so we just ask you'll give us an extra measure of grace today. And we ask it in Jesus name. God's people said, amen.

Well, let's take our Bibles, if we could, and open them to Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1. If you need a handout from the first week, we have those available in the back. If anybody still needs one, you could put your hand up. All right, looks like we're covered, Lord willing.

And we started our study, uh, this is week three, and we haven't even gotten to the book yet. So, but we're spending some time on the background because it's one of those things, this is one of those books, particularly, where unless you understand the background, you'll get very confused, very fast, as to the contents of this book.

So here are the background issues there on the screen. And the first one we looked at is authorship, who wrote it. My answer is I don't know, and I don't know if I care that much. Does that sound blasphemous to say that?

Whoever wrote it, and there's some suggestions, it has no control over how the book is interpreted. So I'm not going to spend a bunch of time trying to figure this out when the author, whoever he was, wanted to remain anonymous.

The second issue is the big ticket item, which is the audience. You have to understand the audience to understand the contents of this book. The audience, as we've demonstrated, is a believing audience. Uh, circle that, put stars around it, put an exclamation point in it and through it. Highlight it, put dancers or whatever you have to do around that one because that's the big one, because that controls how you understand the warning passages, which I'll mention in just a minute.

The audience is second-generation Christians. That's important because they're weaker than the first generation. They're Jewish, and they're not in the diaspora. They're located in the land of Israel, very near the temple.

The date of the book is not too early because we're dealing with the second generation, and not too late because the temple is still standing. We know historically that the temple was destroyed in AD 70. When you look at the verses, um, that I have there in the second bullet point, right here, you'll see there's many references to the temple and the sacrificial system still standing and functioning.

So a good date for the book would be AD 62 to 64, where the opportunity to return to the temple was very, very real for these folks that are being tested here.

And of course, my pen is rebelling, in rebellion against me. So, there we go. I'm trying to bring dominion in up here. Not doing very well. I'm going to have to wait for the Lord to do that, I guess.

Uh, the occasion of the book is very important. AD 70 is coming. The nation of Israel is under divine discipline. They've nationally rejected their king and God, when he disciplines his nation, brings a foreign power against them. That's happened several times in their history, and it's about to happen again with the Romans.

So the Romans are going to come, and Jesus talked about this a lot. They're going to take the temple apart brick by brick. So, one of the author's points is the very thing you guys are seeking refuge in is about to be swept away in fire.

And these are folks that had made a public confession of Christ through their baptism. And when you got baptized in this climate, you were basically saying that national Israel was wrong in their rejection of their king. The church, by contrast, is right because they've accepted by faith the very king that Israel rejected.

And once you made that public, and it became public through baptism, you were ostracized immediately by the rest of the Jewish community. So the unbelieving Jews relentlessly, as as happens to people that come out of systems that God doesn't want them in anymore, like they they come out of Mormonism. They come out of Roman Catholicism. Uh, they come out of being a Jehovah's Witness.

Once they become public about it, the community that they left, and even their own family, starts to pressure them to return. So the audience is being worn down through this relentless, um, persecution, and their temptation is, "Well, you know what, if I'm just going to get everybody off my back, I'll just go back to the temple. I'll syncretize Christendom, Christianity, with Judaism. And I'll go I'll go through the motions. I'll go through a few rituals. I'll show up at a few feast days, just to get everybody off my back, because I'm tired of being persecuted, and I'm tired of being ostracized, and I'm tired of being cut off from my grandkids or children or family members or whatever."

So it was a very real temptation. So what then is the purpose of the book? The purpose of the book is an encouragement to not do that. That's the whole point of the book. It's an encouragement not to lapse backward into Judaism.

Well, why not? Two things, two reasons. Number one, what believers already have in Christ is superior to every vestige of Old Testament Judaism. So since you have the full revelation of Christ, why would you lapse backward to a revelation of God that was good, but it was inferior and it was just a shadow pointing to the substance of what you now possess?

And the author, whoever he was, uses just amazing logic to get this point across. It's one of the most logical books of the Bible you can read, probably other than Romans. The author shows that what the believers, these Jewish Christians, already possess in Christ is superior to every major vestige of Judaism. And the Jews, the Hebrews, revered three things. They revered number one, angels.

Because as you go through the Old Testament, you'll see that the messages of God typically were mediated through angels. It was Gabriel, for example, that gave to Daniel the prophecy of the 70 weeks, which is an amazing prophecy. So if the author can show that Jesus is higher than the angels, then the author can show that the message of Jesus is higher and better than anything the Old Testament has to offer. So why would you lapse backward?

Number two, the Hebrews revered Moses. And we're studying Moses in the main service, the book of Exodus. Moses is a big deal because Moses is the lawgiver. And so if you can show that Jesus is higher than Moses, you can show that what you have in Christ is higher than anything that the Old Testament has to offer. So why would you lapse backward? And then the third thing that the Jewish mind revered was the Aaronic priesthood, the whole priesthood system that was dealt with animal sacrifices coming through Aaron.

Uh, the priest had to be a Levite and he had to be a descendant from Aaron. Those two things had to be going for them, then they could qualify to be a priest. And that was a system that was going on for 1,500 years and the Hebrews revered that system, and they should have, because God gave it to them.

But if the author can show that what you possess in Christ is higher than Aaron, he can show that what you possess in Christ is higher than that whole Old Testament system, which was still up and running and functioning, because the temple hasn't been swept away yet by the Romans, so therefore what you have in Christ is higher than that Old Testament system, so why lapse backward? So it's just it's just logic that he's using here.

And then the second thing the author says is if you do lapse back, something bad's going to happen to you. And those are what are called the warning passages. There's the it's these places where the author will interrupt his train of thought, give a severe warning, and then after he's done giving a warning, he goes right back to what he was talking about. And this these interruptions happen five times in the book of Hebrews.

Warning against drifting, chapter 2:1-4. Warning against disobedience, chapter 3:7 through chapter 4:13. By the way, if you can understand that one, because it's set up based on what happened in Numbers 13 and 14 at a place on the uh southern border of Israel called Kadesh Barnea. If you can understand that one, you'll understand the book of Hebrews.

Everything else in the book of Hebrews is easy once you get that one down. There's a warning against immaturity, chapter 5:10 through chapter 6:20. There's a warning against despising the truth, chapter 10:26-39. That one that one, like number three, talks about fire. And everybody says that's hell. No, it isn't hell. It's the fire that the temple is going to be caught on fire by the Romans. So you're going back to something that's about to be consumed, is what he's saying.

And then there's a warning against denying the truth, chapter 12:25-29. And the reason your analysis of the audience is such a big deal is what you believe about the audience controls how you interpret those warning passages.

The first view on the warning passages is these are just hypotheticals which could never happen. Uh, even my hero, Charles Ryrie, takes that view. Um, I'm sorry. Kadesh Barnea was not a hypothetical. That generation didn't go to hell, but they lost something.

They looked into the land, they saw giants in the land, they stopped believing God and trusting him, even though he had done all of these things for them related to what the Exodus generation experienced. And God took a whole generation and shut them out of the land. The land was right there at their fingertips and they could have had it, but they didn't trust God in that sense. Did they go to hell? Crazy to say they went to hell because Moses was part of that group that didn't enter.

So Moses lost something flowing from justification that had nothing to do with heaven or hell. And the author is saying if you lapse back into Judaism, this is you're going to forfeit something that you can't get back. It's not your eternal destiny.

So that I don't think our the hypothetical view is right. The Arminians say these are people that lost their salvation, which other scriptures say that can't happen. The number one market share view is the Calvinist Reformed view coming from the acronym TULIP. Total depravity, unconditional election, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. The P in TULIP says, if you're not persevering as a Christian, then you're not a Christian. You didn't have the the right kind of faith.

And so that's how the majority of commentators out there, this is how the majority of people that you hear on the radio and TV, uh, interpret this, you know, R.C. Sproul, you know, Alistair Begg, uh, John MacArthur, uh, Justin Peters, um, James White. I mean, you just kind of go down the list of the who's who of Calvinism, and they all say this. They say these warnings are so so severe, it must be aimed at people in the flock that really aren't regenerate because they're not persevering. So they're mere, uh, what's the word? Um, confessors of Christ, but not, or they're mere professors of Christ, but not possessors of Christ.

And so, um, the majority of Christendom sits under that teaching and they're scared out of their minds that they're going to go to hell because maybe they're not one of the elect, because maybe I'm not persevering enough. See that? But to quote Paul in uh 1 Corinthians 13, is it? Let me show you a more excellent way. And that's view number four.

A view that I had absolutely no knowledge of until I sat under J. Dwight Pentecost with his outstanding, readable commentary called Hebrews, A Faith That Endures. And he convinced me that this is not dealing with heaven or hell issues. That is not the issue. The audience is already saved. It's the forfeiture of things that a Christian can experience that have nothing to do with heaven or hell.

So why would I gravitate towards that view? I gravitate towards that view because of the audience analysis that we did earlier, I think it was week one, where I showed you the audience is clearly regenerated. So he's not going to shift horses in mid-stream and say, "Okay, now, all you unbelievers, I've got something to tell you." Which means that the believers just go to sleep, right?

I mean, if you believe in view number three, why pay attention to the warning passages? That's just for the unsaved. But what this loss of blessings view demonstrates is very real consequences can happen to Christians that have nothing to do with whether your name is recorded in the Lamb's book of life.

And so, obviously, I'm now in the camp of view number four. I used to be in the camp of view number three because I didn't know any better. And everybody that I had ever learned Hebrews from, taught it from this kind of Reformed Calvinistic perspective. They didn't even mention the other view.

And I largely think the way I think about it because I don't think the Calvinists are right with their understanding of the perseverance of the saints. Our Calvinism series went through all of that. And I don't think they're right in their audience analysis because they think the flock is mixed of saved and unsaved. They think the warning here is a heaven or hell issue, and I think they're wrong at the foundational level. They haven't done the work in original audience that we did, showing you that these people were clearly saved.

So, the author of the book of Hebrews says, "Don't lapse back into Judaism because what you have in Christ is higher and better and superior to every vestige of Old Testament Judaism." So why would you go backwards? And number two, if you do go backwards, something bad's going to happen to you, which are expounded in these warning passages, which have to do with consequences that you experience, but they're not related to whether your name is written in the Lamb's book of life.

So, with all of that being said, the message of the book, I mean, what is the book of Hebrews about? I mean, you should be able to know what every book of the Bible is about through a sentence or two. Howard Hendricks was talking one time about how he was invited to go teach a class or sermon, a guest guest speaker at a church, and, you know, he called the leadership and said, "What do you want me to preach on?" And they said, "Anything but Ephesians."

I mean, you can talk about anything, just don't talk about Ephesians. And he's like, "Well, what's wrong with Ephesians?" And he said, "Well, our pastor's been in Ephesians for like the past five years." I mean, he sounds like my kind of guy, actually.

And so he asked the people, "Well, what is the book of Ephesians about?" And not a single one of them could give an answer, because they became so myopic on the leaves, the veins on the leaves of the tree, that they forgot what the forest looks like. But I could tell you what the book of Ephesians is about. It's about the believer's wealth, chapters 1-3, and the believer's walk, chapters 4-6. That's easy.

Um, the book of Hebrews is easy. The book of Romans is easy. The book of Galatians is easy. You know, the problem with being in a Bible church climate is you get exposed to all these little interesting nuances that you, you know, look at the veins on the leaves of the tree so in depth that you for you lose sight of the forest. See that?

So what is the big picture of the book of Hebrews? I mean, if someone were to ask you, "What is the book of Hebrews about?" Could you answer that? And you could, because it isn't complicated. And that's what's called a message statement of the book. It's about the superiority of the full revelation of Christ. And my message statement is probably too wordy. You could reduce it further.

But it's the superiority of the full revelation of Christ in comparison to Old Testament Judaism. And this is shown through Christ's superiority to every major vestige of Judaism. What you have in Christ is higher and better than anything the Old Testament has to offer, so don't go backwards. Don't retrogress, even if it means escape temporal relief, you know, from persecution.

So right here is what you call the what question. What is the book about? It's the subject of it. Right here is what you call the purpose statement, which is why. I mean, when the author set set sat down to record this masterpiece, what was the intended impact he wanted to have on his audience? And you can do this with every book of the Bible.

The why is the author wrote Hebrews so that his audience would not lapse back into Judaism. What is it about? The what you have in Christ is the ultimate revelation. Why did he go why does he go into all this detail? So his audience would read this and say, "You know, it's crazy to go backwards, even if there's some temporal relief involved."

So that's the what question, message statement of the book. Why question, purpose statement of the book. So what then is the outline of the book? The first ten chapters is doctrinal.

Chapter 1:1 through chapter 10:18. Now, it starts off with Christ's attributes, which we're going to get to today, but it moves very quickly into his argument. Christ is higher than the angels. Because the angels were the messengers of God in the Old Testament. And what you have in Christ is higher than any message of God. Christ and there's your verses, chapter 1:4 through the end of chapter 2. Christ is superior to Moses. Why is he saying that? Because the Jews revered Moses, he's the lawgiver.

And if you can show that Jesus is higher than Moses, you can show that it's silly to to lapse from Christ back to the law. And then that's in chapter 3:1 through chapter 4:13. Then he says, "Christ is superior to Aaron." That's the longest section of the book, chapter 4:14 through chapter 10:18.

Why is he talking about that? Because he's because he's showing that these sacrifices that they want to retreat to were just shadows pointing to the ultimate reality, which is Jesus. You have the ultimate reality, so why would you go back to a shadow? Is what he's getting at.

So this whole section right here is doctrinal. And then you hit chapter 10:19, and what's our hinge word? Therefore. Uh-oh. So I'm supposed to do something with this.

Chapter 10:19, "Therefore, brethren." And he moves from orthodoxy to orthopraxy. He moves from knowledge to wisdom. And so chapter 10, chapter 12, chapter 13, are exhortations and reminders from somebody, we don't know their identity, who has the heart of a pastor.

And then sandwiched in there is the part of the book of Hebrews that everybody knows. All the teachings and studies you get on Hebrews come from Hebrews 11. So it's almost like, "Let's read Hebrews 11 and ignore everything else in the book," right? That's kind of the mentality that people have, because that's the hall of faith. I mean, we like that part. We're real comfortable there. But the hall of faith doesn't show up in the book until chapter 11, and it shows up for a reason.

It's giving examples of all of these people, going back to Adam and Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and, you know, right on down the list, of all of these people that didn't lapse back. They continued to believe God and trust God when the world around them was telling them to go into apostasy. And so they're held up as examples of for us to follow.

And Hebrews 11 moves into chapter 12:1 that says, "Therefore, since we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses." I can't tell you how many sermons I've heard on that about the angels are watching. I mean, there's one pastor that thinks his deceased son, and I feel badly for the guy because I can't think of anything worse in life than losing a child, but he thinks his deceased son, you know, is like watching him from heaven and shouting, "Come on, Dad," and all this kind of stuff. And the crowd of witnesses in Hebrews 12 is all of the people mentioned in the hall of faith. Put it in context. See that?

So you're thinking about lapsing backward and Noah is saying, "Don't do it." See that? Moses is saying, "Don't do it." Uh, Abel, "Don't do it." And so that's why that that section is there.

And then the book ends, like like we end a church service, with a benediction. I mean, I read Numbers 6:24-26. I don't have to keep reading that forever. There's another benediction there in Hebrews 13, but it's a benediction. So this whole thing is it's structured like a like a sermon, is what you have in Hebrews.

So those are the background issues. So with all of that in mind, let's jump right in, shall we? And let's start the book. Hebrews chapter 1:1-2. "God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, he has spoken to us in his Son."

So we're starting the book. We're at the very beginning of the book. And he just begins with the attributes of Christ. And one of the things he says right out of the gate, he says, "You know, in the Old Testament, God spoke, but it was indirect." In the Old Testament, there's revelation, but it was incomplete. So he's not trashing the Old Testament. He's saying, "better" 13 times. What you have is better.

And God spoke in the Old Testament and it was temporary. But compare that to what you have now in Jesus. It's a direct revelation from God. It's not indirect at all. It's not incomplete at all. It's complete. And this is there's not going to be any more revelation after this. This is the final revelation. So it's so it's permanent.

I mean, the only thing the rest of the Bible is really doing is explaining who Jesus is. So Old Testament is the time of preparation. The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is the manifestation of Christ. Old Testament, preparation. Gospels, manifestation of Christ. Book of Acts is the propagation of Christ. I mean, how did this message start off in Jerusalem and get to us living in the 21st century? The book of Acts explains that.

The epistles, the letters, Paul wrote 13 of them. And then there's eight general letters, is the explanation of Christ. And the book of Revelation is the consummation of Christ. So beyond Christ, there's no there's nothing new, other than after we deal with his manifestation, we learn about his propagation, and then we get in the epistles an explanation of what he was all about.

And then in the book of Revelation, we learn he's coming back. But once you get past Christ, I mean, there's really nothing new to add other than these things which are kind of centered around Jesus. So what the author is saying is, you have the whole deal now. You have everything now. I mean, why in the world would you leave this and go back to this?

I mean, that wasn't direct. That was indirect. That wasn't complete. It was incomplete. That wasn't permanent. It was temporary. So that's how he, that's how he starts.

And then from there, he gives the sweeping attributes. Oh, I forgot to mention this in verse two. Let me throw this in. Hebrews 1:1, uh, says, "God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, he has spoken to us in his Son."

You read that in the English, and it says "in his Son," but you read that in Greek, and the word the word "his" is not there. Did you know that? I mean, what it literally reads is as follows: "In these last days, he has spoken to us in Son." Whom he and it goes on and gives his attributes.

So the final communication of God is the incarnation of Christ. In the incarnation of Christ, you have a you have the highest form of communication that has ever existed from God to man. He has spoken to us in Son. And from there, he lists who this Son is. Who who is who is Jesus?

So here's how it all reads in verses 1-3. "In these last days, he has spoken to us in Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also 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 made purifications for sins, he sat down," big deal there, "at the right hand of the Majesty on high." So what you see out of the gate here are seven attributes of Christ showing his finality. There's not going to be a better act coming than than what you have here.

So the first thing he mentions is he's the heir of all things. That's in verse 2. "In these last days, he has spoken to us in Son, whom he appointed heir of all things." Now, what does that mean, heir of all things? He is the one that will exercise complete and total authority one day in the millennial kingdom, when his kingdom is ushered in. So he's not, you know, an upper management position. Okay? He's an he is inheriting the corporation. And one of these days, he's going to sit on David's throne in Jerusalem. He will not be second guessed. Those that second guess him will suffer an immediate reprisal because he is the heir of all things.

Number two, he is, this Jesus, he is the maker of all things. You see that also in verse 2. "In these last days, he has spoken to us in Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world." Uh, better translation might be, "He ordered the ages." He's the creator. He is the one that spoke and the cosmos leaped into existence.

John 1:3. "All things came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being." Colossians 1:16, "For by him," that's Jesus, "all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him." He is, yes, he's the redeemer, but before he was redeemer, he was the creator.

Now, the Jehovah's Witnesses, when they come to your door, not if, but when, will try to say, "Well, he was like the um," they have some word that they use for it. But it's like a, "He was the creator, but he was not the master creator." Because Jesus himself is a created being. The master creator, God the Father, created Jesus and then Jesus kind of turned around and created the world. And that is just pure, uh, unbiblical heresy. Jesus wasn't created by anyone. He is the uncaused cause. There never was a time in which he was not.

He is the one that spoke and the heavens and the earth and everything that we know, the angels, everything, leaped into existence. So it's not just he's the creator of all things, he's upholding all things. Verse 3, "He is the image, he is the radiance of the of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, and he upholds all things by the word of his power."

Colossians 1:17, "He is before all things and in him all things hold together." I wish I knew more about science and that kind of thing than I do. I have a very limited understanding of it, but people tell me that there's something, there's some kind of glue that holds the atoms and the molecules in matter together. Some kind of, a source of energy. Without which, they would just scatter.

What what is that source of energy? I mean, I may not know a lot about science, but I think I can answer this one based on the Bible. I think it's Jesus doing that. And who is the one, you know, you look at the planets and their revolution around the sun and all of these kinds of things. I mean, why don't they collide with each other? Why do they orbit around the sun at a distance where they don't collide? That's Jesus doing that.

Well, who's keeping my heart beating and my respiratory system working and allowing me to wake up this morning and sustain me throughout the night? Jesus did that. Jesus is doing it right now. See that? So it's not just he's the creator of all things, he's upholding all things.

Number six, he is the one who made complete purification for sin. Now, this sacrificial system that they all want to go back to, by the way, uh, before I talk about that, there's where you find it in verse 3, "when he made purification for sins." Now, this sacrificial system that you, everybody wanted to return to to escape persecution, it never did this. The only thing it did is it kicked the can down the road for a year, Yom Kippur.

God postponed the note of indebtedness for sin for the nation for a year. The next year, they had to do it all over again with the blood on the mercy seat, on the ark of the covenant, in the holy of holies, and it was always like, "Gosh, it's kind of getting nervous time. Do you think God is going to forgive the note of indebtedness one, one more year?" And they went in and did their ritual, and they were all relieved, "Okay, God is not going to hold us accountable for sin for a year."

It's like taking a note, it's taking a loan out from somebody. And, you know, you got a loan and you say, "I'll pay it back with interest," and you have a payment schedule. Well, you miss, you miss a payment. So you got to go to the person that loans you the money and and ask for an extension, and they give it to you. But then you miss another payment. And you got to go to the people that loaned you the money and you got to ask for an extension, and they give it to you. So every time you go back, you're always nervous like, "Maybe this is the time they're going to say, no more extensions."

That's what the Old Testament system did for people. It was an extension. Now, compare that to this scenario. You go in front of somebody that loaned you the money and and they say to you, "You know what, not only do you not have to pay it back on this date for a payment, but can do you mind if we do this? Can we just pretend like you never borrowed the money at all?" And they cancel the principle. That's Jesus.

Jesus canceled the principle. He didn't cancel the payment schedule. You follow? The Old Testament system could not do this, but Jesus did it. That's why as you read through this Old Testament system, it's repetitious. It's only meant to cover things for a year. By the way, Yom Kippur, you know that those words, Yom Day, Kippur covering, right? That's what, that's what it means, cover. We'll cover the problem for a year. Jesus says, "There's no more problem." To Telestai, right? It is finished. So this is what the author is talking about when he said, "He made purification for sins." Complete and total, uh, final.

Religion said, "Jesus did 90%, you kick in 10%." God said, "Jesus did 100% and receive it by grace." I think I'll take the bottom column. I spent too much of my life on the top one there. And then the last thing that you learn about Jesus is he sat down at the Father's right hand. That's right there in verse 3. "When he made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." That was his first order of business when he ascended back to the Father, he sat down.

Now, the priests in the Old Testament never sat down. Did you know that? I mean, when they were on duty, I should say, they never sat down. Because you look at the whole tabernacle system that Moses is going to describe, he's going to describe all of these pieces of furniture in the tabernacle system. The altar, the brazen laver, the ark of the covenant, the holy place, what the walls are going to look like. I mean, a lot of furniture there, the gates, how you get in. Do you notice something that's not here? There's no chair.

Well, that's kind of odd. How come there's no chair? Because the priest's work was never done. You only sit down when you're done. And this system couldn't finish everything. But Jesus, when he ascended back to the right hand of the Father, sat down. So the, the writer writing to a Jewish mind that understands all of these things is showing the finality of Christ's work.

What did he do when he sat down? He started his present session. Christ has three offices: prophet, priest, king. Prophet, first coming. King, second coming. Well, what's he doing now? Priesthood. Present session. Not to be confused with a Davidic reign, which is yet future. Jesus will say this to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:20-21. And as I read this, how many thrones do you see? This is, uh, what, 60 years after the Ascension.

"He who overcomes, I will grant, future tense, to him to sit down with me on my throne." As I also overcame, and sat down, aorist tense, meaning it already happened, "with my Father on his throne." How many thrones do you see there? My throne, future. Father's throne, now. I see two. Why are there two? Because the future one is his role as king in Jerusalem. The present one, which is not even his throne, is the Father's throne, is where he's exercising his ministry as high priest.

That's way better than Aaron, by the way, as the author will develop. Where did Jesus go when he ascended? Did he go up to David's throne? All of these younger faculty at Dallas Seminary and other places are trying to convince a generation that Jesus is sitting on David's throne right now. No, he's not sitting on David's throne. That's in the future. He's not sitting on David's throne, functioning as king. He is sitting on the Father's throne now, functioning as high priest, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek, as the writer will say. The book of Revelation summarizes this, "Her child was caught up to God and his throne," not the Son's throne, the Father's throne. "Well, what about the Son's throne and his future throne in the kingdom?" When is that going to happen? Oh, it'll happen, believe me. It's just not happening now. We've got to have a repentant Israel for that. And that's not going to happen until the end of the tribulation period. But you, you'll get the kingdom, don't worry, it's just not now.

So if we're not in the Davidic Kingdom now, that means he's doing nothing, right? This is how these guys argue. Dave Anderson writes in his dissertation, "But clearly, Jesus did not set up a natural theocratic kingdom with himself as King, ruling from Jerusalem on Earth. So what happened to the kingdom that he promised? It was postponed." So far, so good. "Many New Testament passages suggest, but if the pre-millennial view just espoused is true, that leaves the question concerning the present ministry of Christ. What is he doing now?"

Dave Anderson says, "But classical or revised dispensationists, that's us, should also recognize that the already eschatology of Hebrews, Christ is not passive on the throne." Well, Dave, who said he was? He is reigning. He has subjects, because he is the forerunner. There are many present blessings which belong to the eschatological age which can be enjoyed now because the Davidic Kingdom with some of its blessings has been inaugurated. What he's saying is, unless you acknowledge that Jesus is on David's throne now, you're arguing he's doing nothing. That's a straw man argument, because Jesus is doing something.

It's called his present session. I have a list of 12 things he's doing right now that have nothing to do with the Davidic reign. So, how does this relate to the book of Hebrews? As you're thinking about lapsing back into Judaism to escape persecution, go to Jesus who is your active high priest that will help you in your time of need. Because his session at the Father's right hand, although not the Davidic Kingdom, is an active session.

And he will help you to say no to apostasy, and he will help you bear up under persecution. The author of the book of Hebrews is going to call that your rest. That's how you fix this problem. Don't go backwards, because if you go backwards, there's consequences. And you don't have to have the consequences. Go to Jesus, who wants to help you in the midst of this struggle. Father, we're grateful for your word, your truth, and help us not go through the book of Hebrews, but help the book of Hebrews go through us. We'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus name. God's people said, amen. Happy new.