Union Church

Hebrews 11:23-31 - Roll Call (Part 3)

Listen along as we continue our journey through the hall of faith.

Notes//Quotes:

“Faith is not something passive, not something private, not an esoteric interest kept in a corner, brought down, as it were, to be put on display every so often, but actual biblical faith, a decisive decision, and a sustained attitude. Beginning as a man or a woman gives up all dependence upon himself or herself in order to trust in living God.” —Alistair Begg

“You’re only as durable as the thing you love most. If I love something most that can never pass away….I will never pass away. If I can love something most that will lasts forever…I will last forever. But if I love anything that’s vulnerable…then I’m vulnerable.” —Timothy Keller

1. Every person is goal oriented.
2. All goals compete. You can’t live unless you choose one goal as the center of value by which all other goals are judged. One bottom line.
3. “If you choose a finite center of value, you’re always anxious.” 
— Thomas Oden

“It might have seemed strange, that Moses should set a few drops of blood, as a remedy, in opposition to God’s vengeance; but being satisfied with God’s word alone, that the people would be exempt from the scourge that was coming on the Egyptians, he did not hesitate.” —John Calvin

10 “When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:10-12)

“You see, we don’t have to worry about how he’s gonna part the sea. We just have to worry about whether we’re prepared to stand with the staff stretched out over the water. And some of us never have the joy of standing, as it were, and seeing the deliverance of God because we’re so worried about how God is gonna manage to take care of it. God says, “Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it. You just do what I told you.” “By faith.” By faith! Nothing but persevering faith could enable Moses to do what he did, and then in turn the people to follow him as they did.”—Alistair Begg 

1 God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
and rides upon the storm. 

2 Deep in unfathomable mines
of never-failing skill;
He treasures up His bright designs,
and works His sov'reign will. 

3 Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head. 

4 Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust Him for His grace;
behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

5 His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flow’r.

6 Blind unbelief is sure to err,
and scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
and He will make it plain.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #412 by William Cowper 

 

 

Hebrews 11:17-22 - Roll Call (part 2)

Listen along as we continue through the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 11:4-16 - Roll Call

Listen along as we continue our time through the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 11:4-16 - Josh

“11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
 — 1 John 3:11-15 (ESV)

“it was what Abel believed, not what he brought, that made the difference.” —Hebrews 11:4 (MSG)

“13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility…”  — Ephesians 2:13 & 14 (ESV)

“It’s like we’re reversing the negative effects of Adam and Eve’s fall and fulfilling our deep desire to be accepted. By making peace with God every day, we move away from feeling alone and towards a peaceful relationship with Him.” - Timothy Keller

“Noah, was the first to act in faith based on a message from God. Noah acted on the divine warning in regard to a flood that was not yet seen and did so “in holy fear” (a form of the verb eulabeomai, meaning that he paid close and reverent attention to God’s instruction). Accordingly, Noah built an ark to save his family and, correspondingly, condemned the world. His building of the ark both bore witness to the unseen God and his Word and constituted a stark, prophetic rebuke to that godless generation. Their unbelief stands in bold relief to Noah’s faith stance toward God. As one who lived by faith, or confident boldness, with regard to God’s Word, he became an heir of righteousness.”
- George Guthrie

“privilege and duty are inseparably connected, yet duty will never be performed where faith is absent.”
- A.W. Pink

“13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” 
- Hebrews 11:13-16 (ESV)

Hebrews 11:1-3 - Learning Faith

Listen along as we begin Hebrews 11.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 11:1-3

Faith is confidence that results in action carried out in a variety of situations by ordinary people in response to the unseen God and his promises, with various earthly outcomes but always the ultimate outcome of God’s commendation and reward. - George Guthrie

“A man lives by believing something, not by debating and arguing about many things.” - Thomas Carlyle 

“God does not expect us to submit our faith to him without reason, but the very limits of our reason make faith a necessity.” Augustine 

“A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antobodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if they failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.” - Tim Keller

Faith is not a distant view but a warm embrace of Christ. - Calvin

2 Peter 1:3-11

Luke 17:5-6 - 

“If you’re falling off a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. Salvation is not finally based on the strength of your faith, but on the object of your faith.” Tim Keller

Matthew 18:2-5 

Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again -- until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other. - William Boothe

Hebrews 10:19-39 - Beyond the Forrest

Listen along as Anthony continues our journey through Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 10:19-39 - Jack A
Title: Beyond The Forrest

19 Therefore, (in other words, if all of this is true) brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. - Hebrews 10:19-23

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. - Hebrews 10:24&25

“In the body of Christ, we are looking to relate to each other in such a way that—it prompts us to live out the dynamics of love and good works in the community.” 
- Donald Guthrie

 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
- Ephesians 4:31&32

“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”  
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. - Hebrews 10:26-31

“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” - Hebrews 10:14

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us” 
- Richard Sibbes

32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
- Hebrews 10:32-36

Hebrews 10:1-18 - Forgiveness

Listen along as we continue our series through the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 10:1-18 - Mike

Hebrews 10:1-18

We should weep; for God has given us the freedom, the forgiveness, the life, which we could not win for ourselves. Our tears are not tears of separation but tears of homecoming; not tears of death but tears of life; not tears of a past but tears falling on a bedrock of hope for the future. Our sins have been taken away and we, through the accomplishment of another, have been brought to the Father and incorporated into his family forever. This is the gospel. George Guthrie 

(The secular assumption is that) morality is relative—there are no absolutes. In such a worldview, confession and forgiveness are always something of a sham: Who is to say what a sin is? Why should I feel guilty for something I want to do? Who are you to declare whether I am forgiven or not? - Tim Keller

“Forgiveness is not so much a word spoken, an action performed, or a feeling felt as it is an embodied way of life in an ever-deepening friendship with the Triune God and with others. As such, a Christian account of forgiveness ought not simply or even primarily be focused on the absolution of guilt; rather, it ought to be focused on the reconciliation of brokenness, the restoration of communion—with God, with one another, and with the whole creation.” - L. Gregory Jones

Hebrews 9:11-28 - The Son's Offering

Listen along as we continue our journey through the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 9:11-28 - Jon
Title: The Son's Offering

(vs. 11) “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)” 12 he entered once for all into the holy places,

“The priests under the old system went daily into the Temple, the successor of the wilderness tabernacle; the high priest went annually into its inner sanctum, the holy of holies. But all along, as Hebrews explained at the start of chapter 8, this tabernacle or Temple was a secondary thing, a temporary substitute for the reality which God had in mind all along, the ultimate sanctuary or tabernacle which was the very presence of God himself in the heavenly realms. We may perhaps find it difficult to think of this heavenly sanctuary as an actual building, and of course that’s the point; the building on earth, ‘made with hands’ (verse 11), is simply a signpost to the reality. The reality is that God dwells in light and holiness which would dazzle us to bits. We can only come near to him if someone, like the high priest in the Temple, goes in ahead to present the tokens of our purification, to certify that we have been passed as fit to enter.” 
- N.T. Wright

(Vs. 12) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 

13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

“the most important problem in the development of civilization…the price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt.” 
- Sigmund Freud

“Although I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt myself to be a sinner before God with a most unquiet conscience. . . .I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners . . . Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience.” 
- Martin Luther

15 Therefore he (Christ) is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 

(Vs. 23) …it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,  28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. 

Hebrews 9:1-10 - Awe and Integration

Listen along for family worship as we continue through the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 9:1-10

Lamp Pic // Table // Ark // Tabernacle

Exodus 31:1-6

Corinthians 6:19-20

“Genuine holiness is genuine Christ-likeness, and genuine Christ-likeness is genuine humanness—the only genuine humanness there is. Love in the service of God and others, humility and meekness under the divine hand, integrity of behavior expressing integration of character, wisdom with faithfulness, boldness with prayerfulness, sorrow at people’s sins, joy at the Father’s goodness, and single-mindedness in seeking to please the Father morning, noon, and night, were all qualities seen in Christ, the perfect man.” - JI Packer

It is when we face ourselves and face Christ, that we are lost in wonder, love and praise. We need to rediscover the almost lost discipline of self-examination; and then a re-awakened sense of sin will beget a re-awakened sense of wonder. - Andrew Murray

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again,” and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough.… It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. - GK Chesterton

 

Hebrews 8:1-13 - Paradigm Shift

Listen along as we continue through the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 8:1-13 - Jack

Hebrews 8:1-13

The Israelites believed that the Temple in Jerusalem was the place above all where heaven and earth met, quite literally. When you went into the Temple, especially when you went into the holy of holies in the middle of it, you were actually going into heaven itself. “Heaven’ is not, in the Bible, simply a ‘spiritual’, in the sense of ‘non-physical’, dimension; it is God’s space, God’s realm, which interlocks with our realm, our world (‘earth’) in all sorts of ways.” NT Wright

"If "gospel" means good news, then Jeremiah had some for sure. He saw the judgment coming, in horrifying technicolour. But he saw beyond it to the redeeming, restoring grace of God, and indeed he speaks of the "new covenant", which takes us to the heart of the gospel in Christ." ~ Christopher J. H. Wright

Colossians 2:6-7

“One of the tragedies of the contemporary church is that, just when the world seems to be ready to listen, the church often seems to have little or nothing to say. For the church itself is confused; it shares in the current bewilderment, instead of addressing it. The church is insecure; it is uncertain of its identity, mission and message. It stammers and stutters, when it should be proclaiming the gospel with boldness. Indeed, the major reason for its diminishing influence in the West is its diminishing faith” John Stott

 

Hebrews 7:11-28 - Relational Theology

Listen along as we continue our time in the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 7:11-28

The ‘perfection’ in question could also be translated completeness; it’s what you get when everything has been put into place for the final great purpose to be achieved. What is this great purpose? Nothing less, it seems, than God’s intention for the whole created world. This includes human behaviour, but goes much wider. The world is God’s great project. Just as a bride and bridegroom plan their wedding day, and work to make it perfect, God is working at bringing his world to perfection and doing what is necessary to make it complete. NT Wright

“The adjective in v. 24 is aparabatos (“permanent,”). This word, used only here in the New Testament and rarely elsewhere, was applied in legal contexts in the ancient world to mean “inviolable” or something not to be transgressed. “Permanent” represents a meaning widely attested in ancient literature. The first-century writer Plutarch, for example, used the word to describe the constancy of the sun’s course through the sky. Thus, Jesus’ priesthood may be characterized as “unchangeable,” since he will hold the office forever." - George Guthrie

“In Hebrews 7 God has given us powerful words meant for a relational end. This discourse detailing the superiority of Jesus’ high priesthood is far more than a theoretical treatise. It expresses relational theology, as all true theology is in essence.” - George Guthrie