Hebrews: A New Day Coming - Why Study This Book?

We are beginning a new study on the book of Hebrews tonight. Here is the intro lesson. Feel free to look at it, use it or whatever.

Hebrews: A New Day Coming 

Why Study This Book?

No one, of course, knows who the writer of Hebrews was. Except for God, of course. He just chose not to tell us. As the author of Hebrews is unknown, so is the date and audience. Many writers have been speculated upon, from Paul to Apollos to Priscilla. But nobody knows.

It is an important book in many ways and one worthy of inclusion in the body of the New Testament. Hebrews says, in essence, that things change because situations change. But, it also says that, even though things change, God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Even though God’s methods change, his plan remains the same. Even though his approaches change, his nature remains the same. Even though the quality of his voice changes, his message remains the same: He loves us.

Hebrews was written to tell us that God’s plan, even though seemingly different, is basically the same as it has always been. It is just that his approach and his methods are different. Where before he spoke through others to tell us his will, now he speaks through Jesus.

Before the New Testament times, God used prophets wandering about to tell people what God’s will for them was. He gave his Old Testament, to be sure, but he really only gave it to a small group of people – the Jews. He never intended that the great body of people in the world – the Gentiles, or in other words, everyone else – have to follow that Old Testament. Instead, he sent people like Amos, and Jonah, Job, Habakkuk – each to a different group of people to call on that group specifically to repent and turn.

Now, he speaks through his Son, Jesus. Acts 4:12 says that God used to turn a blind eye to people’s ignorance of his perfect will, but now demands they follow Jesus. Before Jesus, there was room for not knowing the will of God, for making mistakes in who God was. Now, however, he tells us that Jesus was his divine Sacrifice and in him the “fullness of Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). As Peter says in Acts 4:2, There is no name under heaven given to men whereby they must be saved.” In other words, Jesus is it. He is the sum total of all of God’s plan. Refuse him and you refuse God. He will allow no more mistaken allegiances.

A couple of reasons for writing Hebrews is noticeable when you look at the book:

1. Many had a problem in letting the old law go and accepting fully the new law. Much of the early church was Jewish and had held to the old law for many years. It was hard for them to let it go. The writer tells them that the old law was nothing more than a shadow of what was to come, an imperfect harbinger of the new system. It was never intended to last. In it, he says that the Son of God was superior to all of what came before: angels, prophets, even Moses (one with whom first century Jewish mind considered as the ultimate leader of God's people). In Hebrews, the writer calls Jesus God.

2. There was also a problem of angelolatry that God wanted to address. They were worshiping angels and he wanted them to quit.

3. There was also the problem of failing morale in the early church. In losing their focus (their aim), they were losing their faith.

These were problems in the early church. We do not have much problem with the old law in our time, but we do have a problem with legalistic interpretation of the new law, and with losing our focus because of it. Hebrews tells us that there is no law that is greater than the one Jesus himself gave us. That law, of course, was love. It also tells us that in this new law and situation, each person has personal access to God.