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Hebrews

Hebrews 2:1 Pay attention! Chapter 2 of Hebrews starts with a warning! Firstly, it is important that we reflect on what we have been told and what we have heard about Jesus Christ. Remember, this was written at a time before the New Testament Scriptures were collated and made available to the infant church. The only way to receive the message, the Gospel, was through word of mouth. We greatly underestimate this today, tracts, pamphlets, books, on-line sources are all great, but the message was first passed on simply by speaking it and the recipients simply heard it! Sharing our testimony and the Gospel is primarily a “word of mouth, person to person” responsibility and that will never change. What was it that these early believers heard? It was the news that God had come to the world in human form and that He had been crucified for our sins and He rose from the dead. The message was about Jesus; it gave the world a hope that had never existed before or since. The Apostles and others we...
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Hebrews 1:14

Hebrews 1:14 Will angels minister to us today? And so we are already at the last verse of chapter 1 of Hebrews. What a journey it has been! If there was any doubt about who takes centre stage in this letter, well there cannot be any longer. It is Jesus the Christ, who is presented as being equal to God His Father and far superior to any other heavenly creation or angels.  Are angels unimportant? Is their mission of no consequence? Not at all, and the verse before us tell us why. Who will inherit salvation? It is you and me and all who believe in the sacrificial work of Jesus, it is His church. And the relationship between Jesus and the angels is now revealed, He reigns, the angels’ task is to serve. Who is it they minister to? It is all who truly believe and who will inherit the salvation of the Lord. Putting it simply, the Scripture is telling us that angels are there to serve us, at the bidding of the Lord! We could go on and exchange endless stories or testimonies of the occasio...
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Hebrews 1:13

Hebrews 1:13 Sit at my right hand The author of this wonderful letter is still trying to make his point that Jesus Christ the Son of God, is far superior to any angel. Remember that this is written primarily to Jewish believers and thus any argument could be settled by quoting from the Scriptures, which were sacrosanct in Jewish thinking. If the Psalms said it, then it must be true, especially a Psalm of King David, and this quotation does indeed come from the pen of David and is the opening line from Psalm 110. In that Psalm God speaks to one who is sovereign over David, who is his Lord, and tells that Lord to sit at His right hand.  The right hand is, as we know, a position of favour and authority and to sit in this position suggests longevity and permanence. Jesus was offered this seat on His return to heaven and this verse repeats what we are told in verse 2 . “After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ” In other words,...
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Hebrews 1:11-12

Hebrews 1:11-12 Heaven and earth will perish This chilling statement is found elsewhere in the Scriptures, creation is not timeless and eternal, it has limits, it will eventually be wound up and replaced.  “ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation   will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.” Isaiah 51:6 “ All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up   like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered   leaves from the vine, like shrivelled figs from the fig tree.”  Isaiah 34:4 Revelation 21 takes this a step further by describing the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, very different to the world we currently inhabit. The encouragements offered by Hebrews chapter 1 tell of this eventual annihilation but then adds that the Lord “ remains the same, His years will neve...
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Hebrews 1:10

Hebrews 1:10 Jesus is God! There is no question that to ancient minds the origins of the earth and the universe were credited to the gods. In the case of the Jews this was, of course YAHWEH, he was, and is, the God who surpasses and exceeds all others and so we worship Him. We give Him the credit for creating this earth and all who live in it. Those who doubt Him or willingly berate Him only have to stand outside in His creation for a few seconds and at least a billion reasons for His existence and His creative powers are all around them. In the earth beneath their feet, in the plants, insects, animals and birds that surround them, in the air that they breath and in the skies over their heads. There’s no way that all of this came into being by accident or even as a creeping process over millions of years. What a joke! How deluded do you have to be to believe such nonsense? We believe that the LORD laid the foundation of the earth and that the heavens are the work of His hands. What a G...
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Hebrews 1:9

Hebrews 1:9 Set high above His companions The longer we spend meditating on the role and status of the heavenly creatures, the more convinced we will become that they are spirits with free will, just like us humans! The revelation, in Psalm 82 and other places, that the heavenly courts are places where celestial beings meet with God and discuss His actions and His decisions as they play out on earth, is mind-boggling! The awareness that there are angels who have attached themselves to the Satan and willingly chosen to obey him rather than God, shows that these creatures are not robots, they have the ability to make choices and must suffer the consequences, just as we do.  The Son of God stands head and shoulders above them all because He was unstintingly obedient to the Father’s will and proved this, despite living on earth for thirty plus years and rebuking all the temptations and lures that the enemy could throw at Him. Jesus was unbelievably obedient and demonstrated in His ever...
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Hebrews 1:8

Hebrews 1:8 Jesus carries the sceptre of justice Do you remember the words of the Angel Gabriel when he visited Mary and foretold the birth of her child, Jesus? These are Gabriel’s words, “ He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give Him the throne of Hs father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”  Luke 1:32-33. Gabriel was a high-ranking messenger angel, but he did not seem to be in doubt about the status of the child that was to be born to Mary. The quotation here in Hebrews comes direct from Psalm 45:6, and is attributed to the sons of Korah, these men were Levites who served the Lord at His temple and were particularly responsible for the music and singing etc. They predicted that nations would fall at the feet of the Lord God and that His throne would be eternal and He would rule the world with a sceptre of justice. The Jews ascribed these endorsements to the Lord God, but the writer of thi...
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