Hope Sabbath School

Right after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised them a “seed,” a Son who would deliver them from the enemy, recover the inheritance that had been lost, and fulfill the purpose for which they had been created.  The promise was later confirmed to Abraham and God did the same with David. What neither Adam and Eve, Abraham, nor David probably ever imagined, however, was that their Redeemer Son would be God Himself.

The study emphasizes two themes. The first one is Christ our King, and the second is Christ our Mediator

The book of Hebrews was initially read and received by the early Christian church as a letter from the apostle Paul. This study emphasizes three things: the “genre” of the epistle, its audience, and the “last days” in which the readers are living.

This study looks into three big questions  First, we are told that Christ offered prayers to God who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard. What does it mean that Jesus was heard and saved from death? Second, Jesus learned obedience. How did He learn obedience? Was it because, at some point, He was a disobedient Son? Third, Jesus was made perfect. Was He not all along perfect, without sin?

Hebrews 1 and 2 focused on the enthronement of Jesus as the Ruler and Liberator of God’s people. Hebrews 3 and 4 introduce Jesus as the One who will provide rest for us. This progression makes sense once we remember that the Davidic covenant promised that God would give the promised king and his people “rest” from their enemies (2 Sam. 7:10, 11). This rest is available to us now that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.

The gulf that existed between God and us was caused by sin. The problem was compounded because sin also implied the corruption of our nature. God is holy, and sin cannot exist in His presence; so, our own corrupted nature separated us from God, just as two magnets in the wrong orientation repel each other. In addition, our corrupted nature made it impossible for human beings to obey God’s law. Sin also involves misunderstanding. Human beings lost sight of the love and mercy of God and came to see Him as wrathful and demanding. This week's study will look into the amazing things the Father and the Son did to bridge that gulf.

Apparently,  the people  were  in real  danger  of going down  the slippery slope of self-pity and faithlessness.  The apostle Paul is concerned that his readers and hearers may have had their spiritual senses dulled because of the difficult situations they were facing, and thus they had stopped growing in their understanding and experience of the gospel. Is not this a potential danger for us all, getting discouraged because of trials, and thus falling away? This study will focus on the strong words of encouragement that Jesus provides for us.

By living  a  perfect  life,  and  then  by  dying  in  our  place,  Jesus mediated a new, better covenant between us and God.  Through His death, Jesus canceled the penalty of death that our trespasses demanded and made possible the new covenant.

Hebrews  makes  clear  that  the  substitutionary  death  of Jesus  is  necessary  to  save  us,  because  “without  the  shedding  of  blood there is no forgiveness of sins”  (Heb. 9:22, NRSV). Blood stands for the life of the substitute.  The demand that the transgressor die was fulfilled by Jesus, who died once for all as an infinite sacrifice for all humanity.

When God appeared to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, they were fearful of God’s presence. Moses became their intermediary.  All through the history of Israel, priests were the mediators. But even they were prohibited from going whenever they wanted into the Most Holy apartment of the tabernacle.  The veils functioned both as boundaries and protection for the priests when ministering in the sanctuary. Hebrews invites its audience, and by implication us, to approach the sanctuary through the veil; that is, through the flesh of Christ  (Heb. 10:20).

Hebrews 11 and 12 are probably the most-loved chapters of the book. They describe the Christian life as a race in which we all participate and in which all who stay faithful will receive the reward. They also describe the drama of Redemption as a race in which people of faith from the past persevered, despite sufferings, but have not yet received the reward.

This study deals primarily with Hebrews 12:18–29. Here, Jesus is portrayed as the Mediator of the new covenant, and God is shown as the Judge of all. This event is contrasted with the experience of the audience of Hebrews, who have not come to Mount Sinai, something that God’s people were forbidden to touch, but to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Mount Zion is not a place of terror but of festal gathering, for there the believers have access to God. The basis for their joyful confidence is Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant. Mount Zion also is the place where Jesus’ dedication ceremony as King occurs (Ps. 2:6, 7; see Heb. 1:5).

Hebrews 13 presents the apostle’s concluding admonition: “Let brotherly love continue” (Heb. 13:1). He has affirmed throughout the epistle that we are of the household of the King–High Priest, Jesus, His brothers and sisters. The author does not conceive of the audience only as a group of individuals who work on their salvation in a one-on-one.