#094 Welcome to Episode #094 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our sixth of eight episodes in our twelfth mini-series entitled, Shepherding the Sheep | 1 Timothy to Hebrews. On this episode, The Walk of Faith, we’re going to overview chapters 10 to 14 of the book of Hebrews.
In our overview of Chapters 1 to 3 we saw the Supremacy of Jesus over the prophets, over the angels, and also over Moses. We also saw the writer telling of a Sabbath rest of God offered to the Israelites in the wilderness for believing God and his promises.
In the opening of chapter Chapters 4 we saw how faith in Jesus was the entry way into the Sabbath rest of God. And then in the remainder of Chapter 4 to 10:18 we saw the Majesty of Jesus seen in his being appointed by God as high priest, His qualification as being God’s son, His eternal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek, and his better and new covenant established by his own blood sprinkled in a better sanctuary and from a better sacrifice. All this is Jewish and related to the Old Covenantal Law of Moses.
On this episode we’re going to look at the walk of faith of a believer. Remember, the book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers in the church. Their culture and faith as Jews had lasted 1500 years. And their ancestorial heritage stretched back 2000 years to the Patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Rabbis’ and Sanhedrin had determined that Jesus was a blasphemous religious heretic and had him killed by the Romans for this transgression. They viewed Judaism and Christianity as being mutually exclusive; you could not be both.
Believing Jews were persecuted by the Jewish religious leaders, their families, and friends. The temptation to simply return to temple worship brining animals to the priest for sin sacrifice was palpable. This was their danger and the reason the book of Hebrews was written.
Jesus told parables about old and new wineskins and cloth. He says of the wineskins in Matthew 9:17 – Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.
Judaism and Christianity, the old and the new, are not mutually exclusive. Rather Christianity is belief in Jesus who fulfilled all the legal requirements of Judaism, then died as the perfect sacrifice for sin, placing his own blood in a better sanctuary in heaven, and establishing a better covenant in his blood. Jewish believers are not abandoning Judaism, but are completed in Judaism by faith. Jesus is the king of the Jews is also the source of eternal salvation for all Gentiles who place their faith in him.
Hebrews 5:7-10 – In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Judaism, the old, was preserved after the birth of the church and still exists today. Given the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, they had to adopt to a teaching and festival keeping practice absent of any sacrifices. This will continue until Jesus returns to take his bride off the earth at the resurrection of the righteous (dead in Christ and those still alive when he returns). The Old Testament saints will remain in their graves until the wedding supper of the lamb when they will be resurrected.
With no believers on the earth after Jesus’ aerial return for his bride, the restrainer of evil will have been removed and the time of the Day of the Lord will be at hand. We’ll cover all this in our mini-series on the book of Revelation. Jesus will return bodily
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