I'm thinking of moving to a Thursday-Sunday night rhythm for my blog posting. I seem to get good traffic on a Sunday night/Monday morning. I haven't always had great traffic on my Bible posts Sunday morning. I wondered if, if I posted the Bible material Wed-Thursday, if I might catch some sermon preparation.
What do you think?
The Story of Hebrews continues...
1 -- The Setting of Hebrews
2 -- The Cast of Characters
3 -- The Context at Corinth/Ephesus (13:22-25)
4 -- Closing Clues (13:1-19)
5 -- The Main Takeaway (4:14-16; 10:25-31)
6 -- Remember the Good Times (5:11-6:2; 10:32-39)
7 -- The Impossibility of Repentance (6:3-8; 10:26-31)
8 -- The Rhetorical Strategy of Hebrews
9 -- An Eternal Priest (Hebrews 5, 7)
10 -- The New Covenant (Hebrews 8)
11 -- A Better Sacrifice and Sanctuary (Hebrews 9-10)
12 -- The Cheering Witnesses (Hebrews 11)
13 -- The Discipline of the Lord (Hebrews 12)
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1. "Now that we know how most of the sermon will go, how do you want to begin it?" Tertius asked.
"The main point of the sermon is that the Romans need to rely on Christ for their atonement," Apollos said.
"He is the greatest and truest high priest of all!" Tertius agreed.
"Yes," Apollos continued. "We are showing that, just as Jesus sits at God's right hand as Lord of all, he is also the eternal high priest in the Most Holy Place of God's cosmic temple."
"And every believer knows that Jesus is there in heaven, sitting at the right hand of Majesty in the heavens!" (1:3; 8:1), Tertius added.
"So, let's begin with a celebration of Jesus as king," Apollos said.
"I love it," Tertius agreed. "The first few moments of the sermon can be like a grand celebration of Jesus' enthronment as king of all!"
2. "I want the beginning of the sermon to be a grand proemium, a periodic sentence the likes Paul never wrote," Apollos said.
"Is it a competition, now?" Tertius said with a smile.
"Of course not," Apollos grinned. "How does this sound?"
Apollos continued: "Although God spoke in many and various ways formerly to the fathers through the prophets..." (1:1)
"I love that!" Tertius said.
"In these last days, he has spoken to us through a Son" (1:2).
"Great contrast," Tertius interjected. "You have the old covenant and the new covenant right there in one sentence. Is the mention of the "last days" an allusion to Jeremiah as well?"
"Indeed," Apollos answered. "I want them to see that the promises Jeremiah made about the new covenant are in fact what has now taken place."
Apollos continued. "But a great periodic sentence wouldn't end there. I want to expand on who the Son is, who this king of the cosmos is."
"You mean tell them more about who Jesus is?" Tertius asked.
"Yes," Apollos agreed. "Let's describe Jesus with a few descriptive phrases."
Apollos continued. "whom God placed as heir of all things" (1:2).
"He is the Son of God," Tertius nodeed. "Son's do inherit from their father. Also, didn't Philo write a treatise something like that?"
"Yes," Apollos agreed, "and of course Jesus is the Logos, which is the heir Philo had in mind. Good catch, Tertius."
Apollos continued. "through whom also God made the ages" (1:2).
"Wow, there's a Logos theme here that most of them won't catch," Tertius said.
"Can't I enjoy it," Apollos asked with a smile, "even if they don't fully pick up on all the undertones?"
Apollos continued. "Since he is a reflection of God's glory, and the image of his substance" (1:3).
"Now I hear the book of Wisdom" (Wis. 7:26), Tertius exclaimed. "You're likening Jesus to the wisdom of God!"
"You're pretty sharp, Tertius."
Apollos continued. "And since he bears all things by the word of his power..."
"Magnificent," Tertius exclaimed.
"After he had made a cleansing for sins, he sat on the right hand of Majesty in the heavens," Apollos said (1:3).
"Ah, now you have anticipated the high priestly theme without naming it," Tertius said.
3. "Yes," Apollos agreed. "I want to end this periodic sentence of the exordium with a transition to a piece contrasting Jesus with the angels."
"Why is that?"
"Because the angels were the ministers of the old covenant," Apollos answered. "Angels delivered the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai."
"I've heard that tradition. Jubilees?" Tertius asked.
"It's in many Jewish traditions, including our beloved Philo."
Tertius smiled.
"How about this?" Apollos continued. "having become as much greater than the angels as the name he has inherited" (1:4).
"That's a great transition," Tertius agreed. "Jesus sat on the right hand as king and priest, and this established him far above the angels."
"And thus," Apollos concluded, "the new covenant with Christ as mediator is far greater than the old covenant in which they served as ministers."
"It reminds me a little of the letter Timothy sent to Asia right after Nero had put Paul to death. There was a peculiar Jewish movement there that thought they were worshiping with angels in their synagogue worship."
"I remember that," Apollos said. "It was not long after the earthquake."
4. "So that's the introduction. What will we say next?" Tertius asked.
"I'm thinking about a chain of contrasts between the enthroned Christ and the angels, again, all along implying that the new covenant is greater than the old covenant."
"A catena!" Tertius said. "You sure know your rhetoric."
"Let's use a good deal of Scripture," Apollos said. "Pop, pop, pop."
"Like what?" Tertius asked.
"To which of the angels has he said, 'You are my Son. Today I have given you birth'?" (1:5), Apollos said.
"The second psalm," Tertius said. "A classic verse on how Jesus sat at God's right hand after the resurrection when he was enthroned as Lord."
"Yes," Apollos agreed. "And in Samuel, God said he would be the Christ's father."
"What other passages do you have in mind?" Tertius asked.
5. "There's a passage in Deuteronomy where God commands the angels to worship God's agent in the judgment of the world" (Heb. 1:6).
"In the song of Moses, yes?" (Deut. 32:43), Tertius asked. "It's in the Greek but not in the Hebrew. And it is more or less in the Essene version I think."
"But the Romans only read the Greek of the Old Testament, right?" Apollos asked.
"Yes, so they will know the passage that way," Tertius agreed.
"There is a grand passage in the psalms about the Christ's throne being forever" (Ps. 45:6-7; Heb. 1:8-10).
"Doesn't that psalm call the king God on his wedding day?" Tertius asked.
"Yes, in an extended sense. But I am reading it in a fuller sense of the Messiah," Apollos answered.
"And there's a grand psalm about the Lord founding the earth" (Ps. 102:25-27; Heb. 1:10-12), Apollos continued. "Here I want them to see that this created realm and the old covenant will fade away, but the kingdom of Christ will last forever."
"Isn't that psalm about God the Father?" Tertius asked.
"It is," Apollos said, "but this is a hymn to Christ. It is somewhat poetic. We are reading Scripture with the eyes of the Spirit. And Jesus is Lord too, is he not?"
"Indeed," Tertius agreed.
"All of these Scriptures about the enthroned Christ," Apollos continued, "we'll contrast them with verses about the angels. There's the psalm that calls them winds and flames--passing messengers of God" (Psalm 104:4; Heb. 1:7).
Apollos continued. "In the end, the angels are ministering spirits sent to serve us under the old covenant" (Heb. 1:14).
"But Christ is king for all eternity," Tertius said.
"Amen."
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