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| Hebrews 13:1-9 Genesis 13 Memory Verses: Romans 1:12; 2 Timothy 2:2 Good Morning Brothers and Sisters, This chapter is an epilogue, it is a summation of what has been stressed, and a practical application section related to the material of Hebrews. 13:1 The "love of the brethren" is from the Greek word "philadelphia" which means brotherly love. We are to love each other as family. Think on that, do we treat our fellow believers as family? In southern Cal, we have a tendency to stay to ourselves, we will venture out to go to church, and prayer meeting, but the idea of having people over, or going to visit is strange to us. Treating our fellow church members as family, or as brethren means that we will do family related things for them, like watching someone's kids for the day, so they can have a break, for free. When someone is sick, we go and cut their grass, and bring them meals, for free. We make sure that their needs are taken care of without charge, because they are our family. Some churches do this, it is regarded as a ministry, yet it should be a spontaneous reaction to someone in need. It is interesting, because it is a two-way street, in order for someone to help, they first have to be close enough to the other person to know that there is a need. It isn't just a matter of knowing the needs of the other person, it is because we have developed a close fellowship with the other person, and know them intimately. I'm not talking impersonal, I am talking very personal, very vulnerable, are we willing to pay the price? John 13:34-35 13:2 "Show hospitality to strangers", this is the flip side to the love of the brethren. This is a heavy verse, very neglected in our society. Think of it, if we are not willing to show hospitality to other church members, are we going to show hospitality to strangers? As I searched out this concept, I ran across a few verses that were powerful, Jesus said if we show hospitality to strangers, He may be one of them, Matthew 25:35-43. The Law had provisions for strangers Leviticus 19:34, Deuteronomy 10:18-19. Elijah shows how that if we give to strangers, it will be returned to us abundantly, 1 Kings 17:10-16. If we show hospitality to strangers, God will answer our prayers, He will listen intently to us, we will remove hindrances from our prayer lives, Isaiah 58:6-12, (tremendous passage). An Angel gives instruction for the preparation of Samson's parents, Judges 13:1-24. Regarding entertaining angels, Genesis 18, Moses entertained the Lord and two others, Genesis 19, Lot entertained two angels. The first two verses in this chapter address very important aspects of our Christian lives, I hope that this has given insight. We should give hospitality because there is a need, and we should show hospitality to our neighbors, we have a large amount of scriptural situations that point us in the right direction, we have to go there ourselves. 13:3 Remembering the prisoners, placing ourselves at that time, prisoners didn't get the fair shake that they get today. And once they were in prison, it was a horrible place, where the food was improperly prepared, old, or possibly no food available. The community supported the prisoners for their needs. Today we still have the community supplying the needs of our prisoners, our taxes pay for their food, and clothe them, yet there is a spiritual void, which is filled with many prison ministries from churches. At that time, the prisoner relied on others for every need, today, the only need the church is relied on for is spiritual, and possibly rehab after prison. 13:4 Marriages are to be kept pure, meaning that we are to seek all of our sexual fulfillment from our wives and husbands. The word for fornicator is "pornous", which translated refers to one who is prone to go to whore houses for fulfillment, today's equal to that would be pornography, we get the word pornography from this Greek word. We understand the word "adulterers", it refers to anyone who is outside the marriage. The basic idea here is that if sexual fulfillment is found in any means outside the marriage bed, it is wrong, and defiles the marriage. It robs the honor from the marriage. Jesus took a lot stronger stand on marriage than we do, He said if we divorce our wives and remarry, we live in adultery, because we are not with our wife, Mark 10:2-10. I don't know how to comment on this one, I'll bet 50 percent of our churches are re-marriages. He also said if we look at a woman with lust in our hearts we have already committed adultery with her, Matthew 5:27-28. Interesting, who is Lord of our lives? The marriage bed to be undefiled is a tall order, it is a holy order, and an honorable condition. 13:5 Free from the love of money. If our only quest in life is to protect our money, to make sure that our money is used to the best of our ability, basically if our concern for money overwhelms every other area of our lives, we have a problem, we love money. I know people who are so concerned with money that they cannot enjoy a fine meal at a restaurant because of the cost, it isn't because they can't afford the meal, it is the thought of putting out their money for it. Money is an neutral object, it isn't good or bad, it is what we do with it that is good or bad. The reason we have trouble paying the tithe, the love of money, can't let it go. The reason we have trouble tipping at a restaurant, the love of money. The reason we don't help others, it costs money, when I think about it, there is a very real problem with love of money. Isn't it interesting that we forget the promises of God, again making ourselves lord of our lives, God promised that if we are content with what we have, He will make sure we are taken care of. If we place our trust in Him, He will make sure we have our every need. There are many verses to back this up, but time is against me. 13:6-7 Remember the example set for us that was outlined in Hebrews. And remember the Lord Jesus, He is our high priest, He is sitting in the presence of God as a mediator for us. 13:8-9 Jesus never changes, what He taught in the Gospels is true today. We are to compare what we believe with the teachings from the Bible, and lean on grace. This was addressed to the Jews who had fell back into the old temple worship, and they are warned to desert the strange teachings, and to lean on grace, to desert the teachings regarding foods, and to lean on grace. We too are to lean upon grace, to gain our strength from it, and to benefit from it. Grace is our reason we stand before Jesus, we as Gentiles were given the privilege of heaven through grace, what are we going to do with it? Genesis 13 I found it interesting that Lot was given first choice, and that he chose the obvious better land. Yet with the better land, he inherited a mess of problems with Sodom. Abram waited patiently, and leaned upon the Lord, He then verified with Abram His promise, and Abram offered sacrifices to the Lord. He displayed faith by putting God first. Lord, as we look at all the varied issues that were raised by these verses, show each one of us how to put them into action in our own lives. Show us which ones apply to us, and how You want us to change our lives. In Him, Joe Turner. |
| Hebrews 13:10-25 Genesis 14 Memory Verses: Romans 1:12; 2 Timothy 2:2 Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters, A quick note, Lee is helping me with the website, we are working on setting up a special mailer so that you will not get the email addresses at the top of the study. This should make it a lot better for those of you who are printing the study. Hebrews 13:10-25 finish the summary of the book of Hebrews, and gives final exhortations to the believers. 13:10-14 When the sin offering was over, by the way that I understand it, the refuse, the carcass of the dead animals were burned completely outside the city limits. The basic question here is why are you still clinging to the old law, when it has been done away with? Along that same train of thought, he is also asking them why they are remaining in Jerusalem where judgment is imminent. To escape persecution by falling back on the old practices of Judaism was futile, basically impossible. So as a result of that, they were encouraged to bear the reproach as our Savior did, willingly. Application on this to our lives, it is much easier to cling to religion than it is to Jesus Christ. Religion is safe, predictable, and comfortable, we know what to expect from it, and where we can go with it. Jesus Christ is not predictable, He guides and leads us in many different ways. He will lead us out of our city, out of our comfort zone, and will probably lead us into spiritual warfare. He was willing to bear our reproach, are we willing to bear His? 13:15-16 An interesting thing here, the sacrifice of praise is an excellent concept. But reading this verse a little differently, the sacrifice of praise is literally confessing Jesus as Lord. The phrase "give thanks" according to the NASB could also be translated "confess". Reading this verse inserting 'confess' where 'give thanks' was at gives a total different message. Now we see that the Jews are encouraged to fess up, to speak their beliefs. To us, how often in our workplaces and in our lives do we bite our tongues so as not to offend other people? How often do we bite our tongues in order to avoid conflict and teasing? We are not any different than the Hebrews in this area. It says here that if we confess Jesus before men, this goes up as a sacrifice of praise, as worship to our God. To back this up, look at this note on 13:15-16: "The believer-priests of the New Testament are to offer, not animal sacrifices as did the Aaronic priests, but the sacrifices of praise. The Rabbins had a saying, “in the future time all sacrifices shall cease; but praises shall not cease.” Philo says: “They offer the best sacrifice who glorify with hymns the Saviour and benefactor, God.” But the recipients are cautioned that their obligations as priests are not exhausted with praise. Good deeds must also be included. The Greek word translated “communicate,” koinoneo ...., in this context means “to make one’s self a sharer or partner” with someone else in his poverty or need. That is, the saints are exhorted to share what they have of earthly goods with their fellow-saints who, undergoing persecution, have been brought to a state of poverty by reason of the fact that their persecutors have confiscated their goods ( 10:34 ). Translation . Through Him, therefore, let us be offering sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession of His Name. But to do good and to share with others do not keep on forgetting, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased ." Wuest, Kenneth S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English Reader, Heb 13:15. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997, c1984. Doing good, that covers a lot of ground. Have you ever though of doing good as a form of worship to God? Think about it, the process of doing good is a sacrifice which God is pleased with. 13:17 Interesting wrap up, we are not to cause our spiritual leaders trouble. Can you imagine the position that the spiritual leaders were for the Hebrews? They wanted the people to confess Jesus as Lord, and the people went back to the old sacrifices. It would be extremely frustrating and cause a lot of grief to be under this condition. Today we do the same thing. Our church, Friendship Community, and Erik's church, Rancho Baptist, both have been having witnessing programs which reach out to both the lukewarm and to the unbelievers. In both cases, the leaders of these attempts are met with constant frustration and constant grief as they see that people are not willing to step out of their comfort zones to confess Jesus before the world. We have a lot of people playing church, but when we want to put it into shoe-leather, it is hard to get them out of the pews. 13:18-19 The writer request prayer, and an honorable request it is. It should offer a guide to each one of us as how we should pray for ourselves. That we conduct ourselves in a way that we can have a clear conscience and a honorable life. 13:20-25 The Benediction. What a powerful summation of Hebrews. Jesus Christ is our great Shepherd, through His blood we are saved for an eternal covenant. He will equip us for everything to do His will, which He has prepared for us. Hallelujah! Genesis 14 Isn't it interesting that Lot got into a lot of trouble, was captured, and Abram went to help him. Upon helping him, one tenth of the spoils were given to Melchizedek, who was both a king and a priest of the Most High God. This was before the levitical priesthood. We studied about him in the early parts of Hebrews, it is interesting to see how he fits into the story in the Old Testament. It is also interesting that Abram had the opportunity to become instantly rich, and turned it down, accepting only a fair wage for his fighting men. Lord, as we study Your word today, impress on each one of us how we can step out of our comfort zones, and how we can confess You before men. Teach us Lord, and guide us in the worship of service. In Him, Joe Turner. |
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