Hebrews: Anchor for your Soul
The Community that Clings to Jesus
As the preacher concludes his sermon it seems as though he is just spraying out a whole bunch of rules or laws that he expects the people to embrace. But we have to remember his overarching passion to call the people to cling to Jesus. Because these rules and laws are not a regime of regulations being enforced on the people, but they are ways in which the community of faith can help one another cling to Jesus.
The Unshakable Hope
All of us are looking for a kingdom, not a stereotypical kingdom with a castle and a mote, but we want to set our lives up to be safe, prosperous, and secure. The people of the first century were likewise tempted to build a life of security and safety for themselves but because they had chosen to follow Jesus their lives had become less secure. So the preacher, knowing their fears and insecurities, calls to them with the glories of…
Persevering Against Sin
The preacher has called his people to embrace a life of persevering faith, to endure to the end with Jesus, never letting go. Well as he moves on from the hall of faith’s heroes in chapter 11, the preacher will unpack the beautiful glories of this life of faith over and against the horrors of sin. The plan is that we will see sin for what it really is and reach out for persevering faith in Jesus instead.
God’s Story, told by faith
“You’ve just got to have faith.” This is often the way we end conversations about how it is we believe in an unseen God. But all too often it feels like a cop out. I mean what is faith anyway? Well as the preacher of Hebrews continues to plead with his people to cling to Jesus by faith, he unpacks the role this faith has played int he history of God’s people. This the the story of God, told by…
Taking hold of a great salvation
The Preacher has spent a number of chapters showing that Jesus offers a certain salvation and a final purification for sins that the old covenant could never offer. He now summarises this great salvation in two statements of what we have in Jesus: 1. Confidence to approach God because our sin has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus; 2. A great priest who continues to minister to us, mediate between us, and draw us to himself. Because of these…
The Gratitude of Freedom
Saying “Thanks” can often seem like a token… because the words rarely match the act that deserved the gratitude. In fact the best way we can thank someone is to go on and do whatever the person who helped desired for us. Jesus has gifted us something that we know our words or songs could never repay. So how do we thank Jesus in a way that will do justice to the gift He has given?
Obsessed with Blood
For some reason Christians seemed to be obsessed with blood: we celebrate it, we sing about it, we champion its power, and we drink a cup of wine that represents it. This is pretty strange behaviour. This obsession can make us feel pretty confused and uncomfortable. But it is necessary that we embrace the concept of blood because it is central to our faith.
Easter Sunday: The end of all doubt
There is a moment of doubt in all systems of belief… where you do everything you can to achieve the goal of your faith or the desires of your heart… and then you have to wait… wait to see if it has worked for you. This moment of doubt leaves us lingering in fear that things might not work out the way we want. As we meditate on the Easter message of resurrection we will see how Jesus being raised…
The New Covenant
How do you relate to God? So many people think that they have to embrace a special set of rules in order to get close to God, or others think that they have to make themselves clean and acceptable to God before He will listen to them. Well as the preacher continues to call his people to embrace Christ and not drift back to Judaism, he will unpack how it is we can approach God through Jesus… and how it…
Jesus the Greater Melchizedek
Melchizedek appears as a bit of a man of mystery in the story of God’s people. He appears for only a short time in Genesis 14, but the preacher of Hebrews declares that he punches well above his weight in terms of importance. As Pastor Joe unpacks who this man was and his contribution to our understanding of Jesus, we will be challenged with what is driving our lives and where our hopes really lie.
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