Hebrews 1:1-2
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners,
hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son.
Hebrews 3:1
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus.
Hebrews 8:5
Who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses is warned of God when he is about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount.
Hebrews 10:1
For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh.
Hebrews 12:25-29
See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused Him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from Him that warneth from heaven:
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven.
And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and awe:
for our God is a consuming fire.
The letter to the Hebrews was written for very special reasons. It was written to Jewish believers—Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus—in the first century. It was written for at least three different reasons.
The first reason was that, in the beginning of the gospel, Judaism and Christianity seemed to be going together. Those early believers, those Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus, still went to the temple for prayer and worship. They went to the synagogues on the Sabbath, but on the Lord’s Day they came together in the name of the Lord Jesus.
So, in those days, it was very difficult for people to tell the difference between Christianity and Judaism. Even the world at that time considered Christianity as a sect of Judaism. The issue was not clear.
But God was going to separate Christianity from Judaism. In order to separate Christianity from Judaism, God had to do a drastic thing. He had to destroy Jerusalem. He had to destroy the temple—His own temple.
Only by such drastic acts was God able to separate Christianity from Judaism. Judaism had to come to an end, so far as the believers were concerned, and Christianity had to come to a clear beginning.
The Jewish people at that time looked to Jerusalem and to the temple as the very center of their life. If Jerusalem should be destroyed, and if the temple should be destroyed, they would have nothing. How they clung to Jerusalem, and how they clung to the temple—even those Jewish believers.
In order to prepare them for that day, this letter was written. It was written to prepare the Jewish believers for the day when the temple should be destroyed, when they should be completely freed from the bondage of Judaism and enter into the pure stream of Christianity.
The second reason was that this letter was written for the purpose of exhorting these believers not to circle around the foundation. Once the foundation was laid, they were to go on to perfection. By perfection, of course, we know it means maturity.
They were not to remain as babes in Christ, but they were to go on and grow up into sons and daughters of God, into spiritual maturity.
The third reason was that this letter was written as a warning to the believers not to go back. There was always a danger: when the conflict and the trial became too severe, people tended to draw back. A warning was given so that they would go on and not go back to Judaism.
Judaism originated from God. Yet it was something given to God’s earthly people, the Jews.
In Judaism, you will find four things that are absolutely essential:
These are the four essential elements of Judaism. Probably we can add a fifth one: the tradition of the fathers.
It began with something given by God. It originated from God. Gradually, you find that men began to add more into it, and that became the traditions of the fathers. The traditions of the fathers became such a big thing that they literally buried the law of God underneath them. Probably that was the thing that made Judaism an ism.
That is Judaism. What is Christianity?
Strictly speaking, Christianity is Christ. Christianity is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a heavenly people of God.
Christianity does not require a physical place of worship, because we worship in spirit and truth. It is not a temple made of dead stones or bricks, but it is a spiritual house built by living stones.
Christianity does not have a set of rules, regulations, or laws, because the Spirit of God is the law of that body—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
It does not have an exclusive priesthood, because it is the universal priesthood of the believers. Every believer is a priest. There is no mediator between men and God.
The promises in Christianity are not earthly but heavenly—not physical, but spiritual. Blessed be the God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
If there is any tradition in Christianity, it is the tradition of Christ, not the tradition of the fathers. Christianity is not a system, not an ism. It is living. It is real. It is of God.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, this letter to the Hebrews, even though it was written at that time to Jewish believers in the first century, has a very definite message for us today.
Do we have a problem today? Well, the Jewish believers in the first century had the problem of mixing Judaism with Christianity. Our problem may not be the same in that way, and yet we do have a similar problem.
Our problem is how to separate Judaism from Christianity. Or, to put it another way, Christianity today is so Judaized. Our problem is how to separate pure Christianity, which is Christ, from Judaized Christianity.
Through the years, Christianity has been Judaized.
Even in the first century, they had this problem. Some people came from Jerusalem to Antioch and began to teach the people, saying that they must be circumcised. In other words, if you want to be a Christian, you have to be Judaized.
Because of that, there was great argument. Paul and Barnabas argued with these people from Jerusalem. It was decided that Paul and Barnabas should go to Jerusalem and meet with the apostles and elders there, trying to clear up that problem: whether Christianity should be Judaized or not.
Thank God that in Acts 15, you remember, the council in Jerusalem was a very important juncture in church history. By the grace of God, it was decided by the Holy Spirit, by the apostles, and by the people there that the Gentiles should not be Judaized. Christianity should be kept pure from Judaism.
A letter was written. Messages were sent to all these Gentile churches, and there was great joy. There was great liberty and great freedom experienced by the believers at that time.
We would think that the whole problem should have been solved, but it was not solved. Even after the council in Jerusalem, you find that the question of whether Christianity should be Judaized or not remained a problem.
Wherever Paul went, whenever he preached the pure gospel of Jesus Christ—the gospel of grace—you find these Jewish believers always followed in his footsteps. They followed him doggedly, and they always tried to add something on. They said, “Well, what Paul preached was right, but it was not complete. You must keep the law.”
This troubled Paul all his life. Even when he was imprisoned in Rome, there he was in prison for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. While he was in chains and incapacitated, these Jewish believers outside the prison were spreading their Jewish Christianity, adding to the agony of Paul.
Even as Paul passed out of the scene, at the end of the first century, John, for the sake of the testimony of Jesus, was exiled to the island of Patmos. There you find the risen Lord wrote seven letters to the seven churches in Asia.
In two of those churches, the best of the seven—the church of Smyrna, which suffered greatly for the Lord, and the church at Philadelphia, which was faithful to the Lord—you find that they were troubled by the synagogue of Satan, who said they were Jews but were not.
Dear brothers and sisters, through the centuries you find that Christianity has been Judaized more and more and more. When it comes to our day, Christianity has been reduced into a system, just as Judaism once was.
Instead of being heavenly, it has become earthly. Instead of being spiritual, it has become material. Instead of grace, it is mixed with law. Instead of being centered on Christ, it is Christ plus.
The traditions of the fathers in Christianity are no less strong than the traditions of the fathers in Judaism. Many people may not recognize it, but if you really go into Christianity, you will find that the traditions of the so-called church fathers have such great influence that we are literally buried by the traditions of the fathers.
Christianity today has become a system. It is important—we believe it is God’s will—because the time is coming when there should be a separation. Otherwise, we do not see Christ. We see Christianity, but we cannot see Christ.
Judaism, as given by God, is a shadow. It is not the reality.
Before the sun rises to its meridian, it always casts a shadow on everything. But when the sun rises at its meridian, the shadow disappears. Only the substance remains. When the sun begins to go down again, then you find that it again casts a shadow.
But is there any substance in the shadow? There is no substance in a shadow. It has a resemblance, but there is no substance there.
You know how people play with their shadows. I remember, when I was a boy, we liked to step on our shadows, trying to turn ourselves around and step on our shadow. That is how we played with shadows.
This is exactly what you find in Ecclesiastes. How we are trying to catch our shadows! It is vanity of vanities because it is shadow. There is no reality in it.
But how we love these shadows. We love these shadows to such an extent that we think these shadows are realities. Because of our great love for the shadow, we miss the reality altogether.
The day is coming when, if we want to have the reality, we have to let the shadow go. If we are not willing to let the shadow go, we will never get the reality.
In the letter to the Hebrews, there is one word that is repeated many times: the word better.
This word, better, is used twelve times in the letter to the Hebrews. Christ is better than the angels. Christ is better than Moses. He is better than Joshua. He is better than Aaron. He has a better sacrifice. He gives us better promises and a better covenant. God gives us a better country.
Everything is better, better, better, better. When you compare Judaism with Christianity, you find Christianity is better. It is better.
But we do not understand the word better in the scriptural sense. To us, “better” means that here is something good and here is something better. Of course, it is better to have the better than to have the good, but there is nothing wrong, we think, if you want the good and reject the better. At least you have something good.
You see, that is our feeling. But this is not the feeling in the letter to the Hebrews. The feeling in the letter to the Hebrews is that Christ is better; Christianity is better than Judaism.
Because it is better, it is important for us to let the former things go so that we can get the better. Why? Because the good—Judaism—is but a shadow. There is no substance there. But the better is the substance; it is the reality.
If you enter into the spirit of the word better in the letter to the Hebrews, it tells us that the good is the enemy of the better. It is not good if you say, “Well, I am content with the good. Let others have the better. I am quite happy with the good.”
God says, “No, that is a sin,” because in doing that, you miss the better, which is the reality, the substance.
But everyone who has the old wine will always say, “The old wine is better.” They do not want the new one.
Oh, how these early Jewish believers—if we put ourselves in their shoes, we will realize that it was a real problem to them. They loved the Lord Jesus, and yet they loved Moses.
You remember the Mount of Transfiguration. The three cream of the disciples were there. Peter, the leader of the group, saw our Lord Jesus with Moses and Elijah. Oh, he said, “That’s good, that’s good. We have not only the Lord; we have Moses and we have Elijah. So let us have all three of them forever.”
That was their feeling. They did not want to let Elijah go. They did not want to let Moses go. They would be happy if Jesus were there, Moses were there, and Elijah were there.
Even in the last days, when they were with the Lord Jesus in Jerusalem, when they came out of Jerusalem, how the disciples lingered behind and, with such longing, looked toward the temple. They even told the Lord, “Look, look, look. What a temple!”
Let all these things go? Never. We will have Jesus, but we want these things too. We want the reality, but we also want the shadow.
But God says, “You cannot have both.” There may be a time when the shadow and the reality coexist because the full light has not come yet. But when the full light has come, there shall be no shadow.
In the former days, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets in many parts and in many ways. God spoke to our fathers, and God spoke through the prophets. But when He spoke through the prophets, He could only speak in part, in bits, in pieces, in fragments—in types, in figures.
There was not the full light. There was not the full revelation. There was not that vessel which could bring full revelation to the world.
But in these last days, God has spoken in the person of His Son. In other words, when God speaks in His Son, then you find that God speaks fully and completely. In the Son, the full revelation of God has been given.
In other words, the Sun has risen to His meridian. When the light has come in His fullness, dear brothers and sisters, there will be no allowance for shadow.
When we do not have full light and full revelation, it seems as if some reality and many shadows can exist in our lives. But the more revelation comes from God—and in the Son there is full revelation—there is no reason why we should not have full revelation. It has already been given.
In the full revelation of the Son, dear brothers and sisters, there should be no shadow. Shadow and reality do not coexist. The shadow must flee away, and the reality alone must remain.
This was the lesson that God gave to Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration. When he dared to say, “Let the reality and the shadows coexist,” God said, “Never.” God took away Moses. God took away Elijah. When they opened their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
Dear brothers and sisters, in the full revelation of our Lord Jesus, there can be no shadow. It must be reality itself.
To the Jewish believers, God was going to shake the earth. In A.D. 70, God shook the earth. So far as the Jews were concerned, the earth was shaken—shattered.
Why? Because in A.D. 70, God allowed Jerusalem to be broken into by the Roman soldiers, and the temple was completely destroyed—not one stone upon another stone. That was the end.
To the Jew, there was the end of the world. There was the end of their life. There was the end of the nation. That was the end of everything.
But it marked a new beginning for Christianity. From that day onward, no one would make the mistake that Christianity was a sect of Judaism. From that day onward, Judaism was finished, and Christianity came out in its purity.
But unfortunately, through the centuries, when it comes to our time, you hear the term “Judaized Christianity.” When the light began to fade, when the sun began to set, then once again shadows were cast.
But dear brothers and sisters, in Hebrews 12, God said, “Yet once more.” He would not only shake the earth, but He would also shake the heavens and the earth.
Even though Christianity is heavenly, it has become so mixed that God is going to shake the heaven and the earth. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken off, so that what remains will be only those things that cannot be shaken.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are living in this time now. God is shaking the heaven and the earth. He is going to separate Judaized Christianity from pure Christianity, which is Christ. All the shadows must go.
What is Christianity today? A place of worship? A physical building that is called church? You worship at a certain time and at a certain place, as if, if it is not at that time and in that place, you can do what you like and live for yourself.
The Jewish people were ordered to go to Jerusalem three times a year, and they would offer sacrifices and offerings in the temple. Aside from that, on the other days, they lived for themselves. They could not worship; they needed not worship.
Dear brothers and sisters, is this not the thought among believers today? How we set up our worship as a matter of time and place. One thing a week, we go to church to worship. It is almost like Judaism.
The Lord, when He spoke to the Samaritan woman, was told by her, “We Samaritans worship on this mountain, Mount Gerizim; but you Jews worship in Jerusalem. Where should we worship?” They were confused.
The Lord said, “The time is coming, and now is, when you do not worship in Jerusalem; you do not worship on Mount Gerizim. You worship in spirit and truth, because the Father is seeking such true worshipers.”
What is a house, a sanctuary, a holy place, from which we have to take off our shoes? It is not a physical building. As we come to Christ, the Living Stone, we are as living stones being built up together as a spiritual house. That is where we should take off our shoes. We are on holy ground.
But how many of God’s people see this? They cling to the shadow, and it overshadows the reality.
Today, you find in Christianity that you have to have a creed. Some go back to the Apostles’ Creed. Some go to the Nicene Creed. Some say, “Well, that is not good enough. We have to have the Westminster Creed.” Others say, “No, that is not enough. We will write our own creed.”
You have to go back to our creed. You have to have rules and regulations. You have to have disciplines. These become the governing laws of Christian lives. Christianity has been reduced into a set of laws. No wonder we are under bondage.
How many of God’s people know that there is only one law? It is written in our hearts: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. How many know how this law operates in them?
Today, as you look at Christianity, what do you find? You find mediators between man and God, between man and Christ. You find that so-called holy class. They are set apart and try to monopolize all these spiritual services.
And you poor laymen—the laity—you know nothing. You should not do anything. You are not trained. You are not professional.
What do you see in Christianity today? Even among those who love the Lord, you find that it is getting more and more widespread. Christians today are looking for physical blessings. The gospel of prosperity is being preached now, and by that, it is earthly blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you think it is time that God is going to do something? If He did it in the first century, do you think He will not do anything in our century?
God has already begun doing that work of shaking.
Look into the world. There are many countries today where there is no physical building for worship. All the physical places set apart as places of worship were taken away and converted into factories, schools, social centers, and whatnot. If you are going to find a place of worship, you will not find it.
Does it mean that, because of that, you cannot worship? There are many countries today where people are limited, restricted, or even completely taken away from any place of worship. But thank God, those who worship in spirit and truth continue worshiping God.
The shadow is gone, but the reality is there. And what worship!
Suppose today every place of worship is destroyed. We are not even allowed to worship, and yet we must worship. Oh, maybe two or three, in twos and threes, we try to slip out in the middle of the night, go to a forest, sit on the floor in the cold, and there try to offer our hearts to the Lord.
What worship that will be! It will be a hundred times better than what we do today. The reality is there. Oh, how shadows take away the reality.
Brothers and sisters, we who are living in so-called free countries, do you think the shaking has not begun yet? It has.
You find that everything in our Christian life, individually and collectively, has been challenged. Every Christian value is being challenged. Every Christian doctrine is being challenged. Every Christian experience is being challenged. We cannot take things for granted anymore.
Our faith, our hope, and our love have all been tested and tested.
Thank God. Of course, it is not a pleasant experience to be shaken, especially when things are being shaken off and we are reduced and reduced and reduced. We wonder what will be left.
But, brothers and sisters, it is so exciting. Why? Because all these things that must be shaken, let them be shaken. They cannot be brought into the eternal kingdom anyway. Oh, do not cling to these things. Let these things go.
Oh, brothers and sisters, if you have the full revelation, the full light of Jesus Christ, you can see that what is shaken off is but the shadow. It only makes you big, but there is no substance in it. Yes, vanity.
But when the shadow is taken off, that which remains is the kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Many believers today have their faith tested. Many believers have their love tested. The Lord Jesus said, when He shall return, “Will He find faith upon the earth?” Because lawlessness is rampant, the love of many will grow cold.
Your love for your brothers and sisters, your love for God, will be tested. It is already in the testing. Your faith in God, your faith in His Word, is being tested. Your blessed hope is being tested.
Individually, you find how believers today are being tested—many trials, many temptations, many things that come to us today which seem not to have been experienced ten years ago.
When you put things together as the Body of Christ, oh, brothers and sisters, how we are being tested. What is the Body of Christ? Where can you find it? Where is the unity of the Body of Christ? How do you maintain that unity?
It is not a theory. It is a life. The more you enter into the full light of Jesus Christ, the more you find that everything is being measured, tested, and shaken.
But thank God, there is a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and that is the kingdom that we are to inherit.
So I believe there is a message for us in the letter to the Hebrews. We should be prepared to see the great shaking in our lives and in the lives of God’s people.
Because there is such great shaking, we must not draw back. Instead, we must press on to perfection, because the things that are to come will come very soon. They will not delay too long.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this morning I have this burden upon me: Do we have the full light of God? If we do, let the shadow go.
It is the reality that has the substance, and that will remain to eternity.
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou dost not leave us in the dark. Thou art shaking the heaven and the earth. Thou hast told us that Thou art only shaking off the shadows. What is Thyself in us cannot be shaken.
For how we do praise and thank Thee. We ask Thee, O Lord, that Thou wilt open our eyes, that under Thy full light we may not hold on to the shadows as if they are realities and miss the reality.
Have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, in Thy precious name.