Hebrews – What Was Said Before Anticipates What God Says in Christ

I. Introduction

• Hebrews argues that Jesus is the representative man on the throne of God, qualified to be a high priest (Heb. 4:14-16)
• The main point of Hebrews is that Christ is the high priest to bring believers into rest (Heb. 4:1-11)

II. Christ’s Enthronement and Present Work

• Christ is the heir of all things and has inherited the great salvation (Heb. 1:2-4)
• Christ’s present work is to build out the body of Christ to be the habitation of God (Eph. 2:19-22)
• Christ ministers himself to believers, renewing them in the knowledge of himself and providing himself as bread and wine (Heb. 10:19-22)
• Christ’s heavenly ministry is a ministry of washing, not about sins, but about putting off the old things that seek to thwart enjoyment of him (Heb. 9:11-14)

III. The Positive Salvation in Hebrews

• Salvation in Hebrews is positive, not just negative (Heb. 2:1-4)
• It is an inheritance to be enjoyed today and in the ages to come (Heb. 9:15)
• The rest points to Christ as our rest, a present enjoyment of Christ, and a foretaste of the ages to come (Heb. 4:3)

IV. The Temptation to Shrink Back

• The Jewish people were tempted to shrink back from their position as heirs of Christ in the Holy of Holies by faith in the blood (Heb. 10:19-25)
• The emphasis in Hebrews is not on sin, but on unbelief, fear, and shrinking back to old things based on an incomplete knowledge of what’s been provided in Christ (Heb. 5:11-6:3)
• The need is to be established in present truth, not just on what God said before, but what God is saying now (Heb. 13:7-9)