Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Hebrews (ch. 13) ~ Conclusion
Hebrews 13 NLT
1 Keep on loving each other as brothers
and sisters.
2Don’t forget to show hospitality to
strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without
realizing it!
3 Remember those in prison, as if you
were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their
pain in your own bodies.
4 Give honor to marriage, and remain
faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral
and those who commit adultery.
5 Don’t love money; be satisfied with
what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon
you.”
6 So we can say with confidence, “The
LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders who taught you
the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and
follow the example of their faith.
8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,
and forever.
9 So do not be attracted by strange,
new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food,
which don’t help those who follow them.
10 We have an altar from which the
priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat.
11Under the old system, the high priest
brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and
the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp.
12 So also Jesus suffered and died
outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood.
13 So let us go out to him, outside the
camp, and bear the disgrace he bore.
14 For this world is not our permanent
home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.
15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus
a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.
16 And don’t forget to do good and to
share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.
17 Obey your spiritual leaders, and do
what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable
to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would
certainly not be for your benefit.
18 Pray for us, for our conscience is
clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do.
19 And especially pray that I will be
able to come back to you soon.
20 Now may the God of peace— who brought
up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified
an eternal covenant with his blood—
21 may he equip you with all you need
for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ,
every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.
22 I urge you, dear brothers and
sisters, to pay attention to what I have written in this brief exhortation.
23 I want you to know that our brother
Timothy has been released from jail. If he comes here soon, I will bring him
with me to see you.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the
believers there. The believers from Italy send you their greetings.
25 May God’s grace be
with you all.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Hebrews (10:19;12:29) ~ A Call to Follow Jesus Faithfully and with Perseverance
Hebrews 10 NLT
19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we
can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and
life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
21And since we have a great High Priest who
rules over God’s house,
22 let us go right into the presence of
God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have
been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been
washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold tightly without wavering
to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
24 Let us think of ways to motivate one
another to acts of love and good works.
25 And let us not neglect our meeting together,
as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of
his return is drawing near.
26 Dear friends, if we deliberately
continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no
longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.
27 There is only the terrible
expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his
enemies.
28 For anyone who refused to obey the
law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three
witnesses.
29 Just think how much worse the
punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have
treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and
unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy
to us.
30 For we know the one who said, “I will
take revenge. I will pay them back.” He also said, “The LORD will judge his own
people.”
31 It is a terrible thing to fall into
the hands of the living God.
32 Think back on those early days when
you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though
it meant terrible suffering.
33 Sometimes you were exposed to public
ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering
the same things.
34 You suffered along with those who
were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted
it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last
forever.
35 So do not throw away this confident
trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you!
36 Patient endurance is what you need
now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that
he has promised.
37 “For in just a little while, the
Coming One will come and not delay.
38 And my righteous ones will live by
faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
39 But we are not like
those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful
ones, whose souls will be saved.
Hebrews 11 NLT
1 Faith is the confidence that what we
hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot
see.
2 Through their faith, the people in
days of old earned a good reputation.
3 By faith we understand that the
entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come
from anything that can be seen.
4 It was by faith that Abel brought a
more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence
that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although
Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.
5 It was by faith that Enoch was taken
up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before
he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God.
6 And it is impossible to please God
without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and
that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
7 It was by faith that Noah built a
large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him
about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the
rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed
when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give
him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.
9 And even when he reached the land God
promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in
tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.
10 Abraham was confidently looking
forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by
God.
11 It was by faith that even Sarah was
able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that
God would keep his promise.
12 And so a whole nation came from this
one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the
stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count
them.
13All these people died still believing what
God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it
all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and
nomads here on earth.
14 Obviously people who say such things
are looking forward to a country they can call their own.
15 If they had longed for the country
they came from, they could have gone back.
16 But they were looking for a better
place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their
God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 It was by faith that Abraham offered
Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s
promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac,
18 even though God had told him, “Isaac
is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”
19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died,
God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did
receive his son back from the dead.
20 It was by faith that Isaac promised
blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.
21 It was by faith that Jacob, when he
was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he
leaned on his staff.
22 It was by faith that Joseph, when he
was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt.
He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.
23 It was by faith that Moses’ parents
hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an
unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.
24 It was by faith that Moses, when he
grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
25 He chose to share the oppression of
God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.
26 He thought it was better to suffer
for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking
ahead to his great reward.
27 It was by faith that Moses left the
land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept
his eyes on the one who is invisible.
28 It was by faith that Moses commanded
the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the
doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.
29It was by faith that the people of Israel
went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the
Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.
30 It was by faith that the people of
Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing
down.
31 It was by faith that Rahab the
prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey
God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
32 How much more do I need to say? It
would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak,
Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets.
33 By faith these people overthrew
kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They
shut the mouths of lions,
34quenched the flames of fire, and escaped
death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They
became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.
35Women received their loved ones back again
from death. But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be
set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.
36 Some were jeered at, and their backs
were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons.
37Some died by stoning, some were sawed in
half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of
sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated.
38 They were too good for this world,
wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the
ground.
39 All these people earned a good
reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had
promised.
40 For God had
something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection
without us.
Hebrews 12 NLT
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by
such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every
weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And
let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
2 We do this by keeping our eyes on
Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy
awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in
the place of honor beside God’s throne.
3 Think of all the hostility he endured
from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.
4 After all, you have not yet given
your lives in your struggle against sin.
5 And have you forgotten the
encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t
make light of the LORD ’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects
you.
6 For the LORD disciplines those he
loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
7 As you endure this divine discipline,
remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child
who is never disciplined by its father?
8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he
does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really
his children at all.
9 Since we respected our earthly
fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of
the Father of our spirits, and live forever?
10 For our earthly fathers disciplined
us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is
always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.
11 No discipline is enjoyable while it
is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of
right living for those who are trained in this way.
12 So take a new grip with your tired
hands and strengthen your weak knees.
13 Mark out a straight path for your
feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.
14 Work at living in peace with
everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not
see the Lord.
15 Look after each other so that none of
you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of
bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
16 Make sure that no one is immoral or
godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single
meal.
17 You know that afterward, when he
wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance,
even though he begged with bitter tears.
18You have not come to a physical mountain,
to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites
did at Mount Sinai.
19 For they heard an awesome trumpet
blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking.
20 They staggered back under God’s
command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to
death.”
21 Moses himself was so frightened at
the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
22 No, you have come to Mount Zion, to
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands
of angels in a joyful gathering.
23 You have come to the assembly of
God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to
God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of
the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect.
24 You have come to Jesus, the one who
mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood,
which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood
of Abel.
25 Be careful that you do not refuse to
listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape
when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly
not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!
26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai his
voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will
shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”
27 This means that all of creation will
be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.
28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that
is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy
fear and awe.
29 For our God is a
devouring fire.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Hebrews (8:1;10:18) ~The Superior Sacrificial Work of Our High Priest
Hebrews 8 NLT
1 Here is the main point: We have a
High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the
majestic God in heaven.
2 There he ministers in the heavenly
Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by
human hands.
3 And since every high priest is
required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering,
too.
4 If he were here on earth, he would
not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts
required by the law.
5 They serve in a system of worship
that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was
getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that
you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the
mountain.”
6 But now Jesus, our High Priest, has
been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the
one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better
promises.
7 If the first covenant had been
faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace
it.
8 But when God found fault with the
people, he said: “The day is coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
9 This covenant will not be like the
one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out
of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned
my back on them, says the LORD .
10 But this is the new covenant I will
make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD : I will put my laws
in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and
they will be my people.
11 And they will not need to teach their
neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should
know the LORD .’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me
already.
12 And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”
13 When God speaks of
a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of
date and will soon disappear.
Hebrews 9 NLT
1 That first covenant between God and
Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth.
2 There were two rooms in that
Tabernacle. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of
bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place.
3 Then there was a curtain, and behind
the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place.
4 In that room were a gold incense
altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with
gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s
staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
5Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine
glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement.
But we cannot explain these things in detail now.
6 When these things were all in place,
the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious
duties.
7 But only the high priest ever entered
the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his
own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
8 By these regulations the Holy Spirit
revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long
as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.
9 This is an illustration pointing to
the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not
able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them.
10 For that old system deals only with
food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were
in effect only until a better system could be established.
11 So Christ has now become the High
Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater,
more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not
part of this created world.
12 With his own blood—not the blood of
goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured
our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of
goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from
ceremonial impurity.
14 Just think how much more the blood of
Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the
living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to
God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
15 That is why he is the one who
mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can
receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set
them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first
covenant.
16 Now when someone leaves a will, it is
necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead.
17 The will goes into effect only after
the person’s death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will
cannot be put into effect.
18 That is why even the first covenant
was put into effect with the blood of an animal.
19 For after Moses had read each of
God’s commandments to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats,
along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people,
using hyssop branches and scarlet wool.
20 Then he said, “This blood confirms
the covenant God has made with you.”
21 And in the same way, he sprinkled
blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship.
22 In fact, according to the law of
Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of
blood, there is no forgiveness.
23 That is why the Tabernacle and
everything in it, which were copies of things in heaven, had to be purified by
the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far
better sacrifices than the blood of animals.
24 For Christ did not enter into a holy
place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven.
He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.
25And he did not enter heaven to offer
himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most
Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.
26 If that had been necessary, Christ
would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now,
once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his
own death as a sacrifice.
27 And just as each person is destined
to die once and after that comes judgment,
28 so also Christ was
offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.
He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all
who are eagerly waiting for him.
Hebrews 10 NLT
1 The old system under the law of Moses
was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good
things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and
again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing
for those who came to worship.
2 If they could have provided perfect
cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have
been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have
disappeared.
3 But instead, those sacrifices
actually reminded them of their sins year after year.
4 For it is not possible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 That is why, when Christ came into
the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin
offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.
6 You were not pleased with burnt
offerings or other offerings for sin.
7 Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do
your will, O God— as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”
8 First, Christ said, “You did not want
animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for
sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of
Moses).
9 Then he said, “Look, I have come to
do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into
effect.
10 For God’s will was for us to be made
holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.
11 Under the old covenant, the priest
stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same
sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.
12 But our High Priest offered himself
to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in
the place of honor at God’s right hand.
13 There he waits until his enemies are
humbled and made a footstool under his feet.
14 For by that one offering he forever
made perfect those who are being made holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies
that this is so. For he says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day, says the LORD : I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he says, “I will never again
remember their sins and lawless deeds.”
18 And when sins have been forgiven,
there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
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