Good Sunday Morning!

1. Question – Can you imagine yourself as a Jew embracing the Messiah which your leadership has rejected?

2. Thought – The epistle to the Hebrews is one of the two greatest theological treatises in the New Testament, the other being Romans.

Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians, not unbelievers. The epistle functions almost like a Leviticus of the New Testament, but it focuses on how Christ supercedes and fulfills the Aaronic priesthood.

The Temple was still standing at this time, and that was a real dilemma for the Jewish Christian. Try to imagine yourself as a Jew embracing a Messiah, which your leadership has rejected. The Temple is still operating. The traditional culture is still going through all of its routines. Yet you are at variance with all that and are trying to find your way. How do you deal with this? Divinely appointed priests are officiating in the divinely appointed Temple accomplishing a divinely ordered service that has been ennobled for centuries. You face the reality that it was a Jewish religious world that crucified Jesus. You have some very deep emotional troubles.

To complicate this, you are facing persecution, especially in Jerusalem. Stephen was martyred in Acts 7. James the apostle was executed in Acts 12, about A.D. 62. Others were killed in Acts 8 and 26. In Galatia, many Jewish believers were tempted to resort temporarily to apostasy to avoid persecution. The persecution in those days did not come from Rome; it was from Jewish leadership. If you were a Jew trying to maintain a position within that culture, and yet you were a Christian, you were an outcast, part of a weird sect. And you were being persecuted. (Learn the Bible in 24 Hours by Dr. Chuck Missler)

“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book.” (Abraham Lincoln)