BSF Acts Week 12 – The Notes are Good

BSF Acts: Week 12, Day 5: Hebrews 10:19–39

Summary:

The author reminds us that this is not simply a cognitive discourse or mental exercise, it is real and as such calls for action. We are exhorted to live a life in keeping with the gift that we have received. And we are also to understand that the free will we are given to accept or reject this gift of sacrifice and to sign up to be covered by it is ours to make – but their are consequences for rejecting the gift.

Questions:

13. Let us:

draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith: Pray with confidence and trust – not being timid and trying to hide my sin – God has forgiven it even before I’ve committed it.
hold unswervingly to the hope we profess – Am I living my life with an eternity focus or a short term focus? Am living in the line or the dot at the beginning of the line? How straight is my line pointing to God or does it swerve?
consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds – Do I encourage someone every day to come closer to the love of God?
not give up meeting together – Am I in communion with God and my community or do I spend too much time privately with the Lord?

14. The sin is rejecting God – we are given free will to receive or reject (without it eternal life wouldn’t be a gift, it would be a forced state). If someone refuses to come into the house, they weather the storm on their own.

15. They get all that they deserve – eternity spent in regret

Conclusion:

The book of Hebrews does a good job of bridging the misunderstandings that many have between the old and new testaments, particularly in the understanding of God. Many think of the God of the old testament as one of vengeance and war, death and fury and the God of the new testament as a God of forgiveness and love. But God is God. He hasn’t changed. This was His plan from the day man decided to disobey Him. And lest anyone be confused, read vs 31: It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

God loves the world, but those who choose to stand on their own, bear the weight of their sins – a price they cannot pay. Eternity is a very long time to spend in regret.

BSF Acts: Week 12, Day 4: Hebrews 9:11–28

Hebrews 9:11–28.

Summary:

For restitution and restoration with God, death was required, blood was required because life is in blood. But Jesus, by making himself a living sacrifice, pure and without blemish, paid the price once and for all. He did not walk into anything man-made to lay down this offering to the Father, He walked into the sanctuary of heaven and gave it freely, defeating death for all eternity.

Questions:

a. God gave man the gift of life to spend in glory with Him. Man rejected God through sin as a result we owe back the gift of life. God provided His own Son, Jesus, to pay that price, giving up His life to redeem us from sin.

b. We were reunited with God on a personal level. He could again look at us and see the joy of His Son. We became brothers with Christ adopted into God’s family. The curtain was torn. The old, inadequate methods of partial restitution were voided by the new – the price was paid in full.

c. I work to do His will. I come up short every day, but I pray for strength. I serve Him through the love and prayer I provide for others, through teaching, modeling, living a life that is different.

10. a. The original deal was made when God breathed life into man. When man violated his end, through disobedience of the one requirement in the garden, he owed back the original item received. Any avenue of return to the original relationship with God by man must include death since man cannot create life.

b. (Challenge) Lev 17:11 – For the life of a creature is in the blood… it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

11. Read Hebrews 10:1–10. The law and the sacrificial system are spoken of as shadows.

a. Like an X-Ray, a shadow or image provides a view so that we can understand the way things. The sacrifice of animals in the earthly tabernacle and the cleansing with the blood of animals was just an elementary image of what was ultimately required. However, a man was incapable of buying back his own life with his death. In dying, he only gave back what was given, nothing more.

b. God’s will. Jesus was God and gave this gift as a man because he held the love for man that only God could.

12. Once – done. The price is paid it is time for rejoicing not deal making.

Conclusions:

I will be amazed when I get to heaven to see if God has any hair or if He has pulled it all out because of me.

Think of it this way (not a perfect analogy, but it will make the point). You buy your child a new coat and give it to them as a present. It is beautiful and exactly what they need. The next day they come up to you and say, I’ll give you $2 if you let me wear that new coat. You explain, it is paid for, it is a gift, wear it, enjoy it. The next day they come in and say, I’ll make my bed all next week if I can wear the new coat. Again, you explain. Day after day, they attempt to make deal after deal.

But isn’t that what we try to do with God. Thanks for washing away all my sins and clothing me in the love of your son. I’ll promise to go to church and actually pay attention if you just let me be clean for the mess I made. We try to make deals and promises for something that we have already been given as a gift.

If I were God I would have pulled all my hair out long ago.

BSF Acts: Week 12, Day 3: Hebrews 8:1–9:10

Hebrews 8:1–9:10

Summary:

Jesus is the High Priest of the new covenant. The old covenant was made by man with God beginning with a promise of obedience. The new covenant is between God and God for the benefit of mankind. It is perfect and complete. Jesus serves in the tabernacle in heaven directly in the presence of the Almighty (which He is), not empty handed but with the ultimate blood sacrifice and offering, that of His own life on the cross paying the price for all eternity.

Questions:

6. Jesus is our high priest in heaven in the heavenly tabernacle in the presence of God. He talks with God daily about us and has made the ultimate offering and sacrifice for us to be cleansed of the stain of sin.
7. From verses 6–13 we read that the new covenant is superior to the old covenant. See Exodus 24:7–8.

a. An agreement or promise made between 2 parties

b. Old: Man promised obedience to God’s law, God promised forgiveness of sins through blood. The people did not remain faithful. New: God provided forgiveness of sins through the blood of His son, God promised all men will know Him and His law

c. (Personal) I do nothing to receive forgiveness, I only do works out of rejoicing. I live under the new God/God

8. There were regulations for worship and structure. There were also restrictions to entry and only timing as well as the preparation that needed to go into place in advance. The sacrifices were not sufficient, only ceremonial.

Conclusion:

This whole deal of “deal-making” is a very human condition. How often do people in trouble make promises to God, playing “let’s make a deal”? If you will get me out of this mess then I will… The problem with that is the same problem that existed under the old covenant. Everything belongs to God anyway. It would be like me saying to you – I want to make a deal with you, I’ll buy your car with the money you have in the bank – give me your checkbook and I’ll write you a check for it right now.

The old covenant helped people see that they needed forgiveness and that the path to forgiveness was through sacrifice. But they lacked anything sufficient to deal with. Not only that, but the one thing they had, obedience, they failed at even as the law was being delivered. God stepped in, through Christ, and paid the price that was sufficient – once and for all.

BSF Acts: Week 12, Day 2: Hebrews 7 and Genesis 14:18–20

Hebrews 7 and Genesis 14:18–20

Summary:

Jesus is an eternal high priest in heaven in the order of Melchizedek. This is presented as a contrast to the Levitical priestly lineage of Aaron. Jesus is a return to the original, not a new release of the inferior and inadequate copy.

Questions:

3. a. 1. priest of God Most High

2.king of righteousness

3.king of peace

4.Without father or mother,

5.without genealogy,

6.without beginning of days or end of life

7. he remains a priest forever

Difference: Melchizedek was like the Son of God – Jesus was the Son of God

b. Melchizedek was superior to Abraham because he blessed Abraham (greater blesses the lesser) and Abraham gave offering to him (honor).

4. On the day the law was to be presented to the Isrealites they were consumed by idolatry including Aaron. The Levites clung to Moses and with sword executed the punishment on their brothers. This set them aside and placed them as administrators of the law of Moses.

5. a. v20: You are a priest forever. v24 because Jesus lives forever He has a permanent priesthood, v 25 He always lives, v28 The son has been made perfect forever.

b. The knowledge that one such as me, a man in every way, sits at God’s right hand providing a path for God’s love to flow to me. God sees the pureness of His son, not the filth of my sins.

Conclusion:

I cannot imagine the job of being an old testament priest. Every day killing animals, a business of blood and burnt flesh, butchering and sin. Feeling and seeing and asking God for forgiveness of the sins of your kin, your brothers. Only to wake up the next morning and do it all over again. Day after day, year after year. It had to be a bloody, dirty, weary job. But Jesus wasn’t a new version of this same old drudgery. God gave us a peak at the plan he had for Jesus in Melchizedek back in Genesis. Melchizedek wasn’t a butcher, he was a blesser. Melchizedek wasn’t the sword who killed, he was the king who praised and was worthy of a tithe of father Abraham. Jesus does not offer new sacrifices day after day after day, covered in blood. He sits victorious, whiter than snow, permanently bridging through love and grace our pathway to God for all eternity.