Well, once again, as we come to look at God’s precious Word, there is that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable. All other principles are helpful, but this—and this alone—is indispensable. And it is not only a principle of Bible study; it is a principle of life: helpless dependence upon God’s Holy Spirit.
We will not turn to it, but in Isaiah 29 there is a passage where God describes His vision as a sealed book. He says that if He does not open it, it is not opened. Give the sealed book to the literate and tell them to read it; they say, “We cannot read it. It is sealed.” Take it from the literate and give it to the illiterate; they say, “We cannot read it. It is sealed.”
I think His point is that it does not matter whether you are literate or illiterate. If it is sealed, you cannot see it, and only God can unseal it.
Psalm 119:130 says:
The unfolding of Thy words giveth light;
It giveth understanding unto the simple.
We come as simple, and whatever it means for God to unfold His Word, let us ask Him to do that.
Our Father, we thank You that the unfolding of Your Word gives light and understanding to the simple. By Your grace, we would ask You this morning to unfold Your Word. Bring us light and life. Focus our hearts in a fresh way on the Lord Jesus. Deliver us completely from flesh and blood.
We pray that only what comes from You might be received. Thank You that You are with us now, and that You are going to do this, because we come claiming it in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Let me get our great theme before your hearts again. There are several passages in the Book of Hebrews that we could use to summarize the message. This morning, I am going to begin with Hebrews 4:14.
Therefore, having a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need.
It is my burden this weekend that, as never before, we learn what it is to draw near with confidence—with boldness—to our great High Priest. We have Christ as our High Priest.
Last evening, I tried to introduce the message of the first two chapters. Our goal is to get to Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2. I suggested that, in the New Testament, God seems to have selected the Book of Hebrews in order to set forth, in all its glory, the wonderful present ministry of our Lord Jesus: the priesthood of Christ.
However, other passages anticipated that ministry, looked forward to it, pictured it, and set it forth. One of those pictures is in Exodus 28: the high-priestly garments of Aaron.
I hope God has begun to burn into your heart—as He has begun to burn into mine—the reality that, at this moment, I am being carried on His shoulders; that, at this moment, I am being carried over His heart; that, at this moment, He offers each one of us perfect light, the perfect will of God; and that He displays us in the presence of a holy God as those who are holy unto the Lord.
I pray that God would tune our faith to hear the bells as our great High Priest represents us in heaven before our holy Father.
We also looked at Luke 24. This is the only ascension record of our Lord Jesus that gives us the bodily posture of Christ as He ascended into heaven. According to Luke 24, He reached out His hands, and in priestly benediction, while they were being blessed, He ascended until a cloud received Him out of their sight.
I suggested that the raising of His hands in blessing, though it may have been a one-time act, illustrated an everlasting attitude. He has finished the work, and He continues to bless us.
That introduction was designed to prepare our hearts to look at Hebrews 1 and 2—indeed, the whole Book of Hebrews. This morning, I would like to give a second introduction. I want to continue introducing the present ministry of the Lord, but this time we will get a little closer to Hebrews. In fact, we will probably come right to the door of chapter 1, and, Lord willing, we can pick it up there tonight.
In order to prepare our hearts for Hebrews 1 and 2, I suggested that there are really two aspects of the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus. One we call the finished work of Christ.
By the finished work, we are talking about His incarnation, His sinless life, His sacrificial death, His glorious resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of God. It is a finished work. It is over.
Then we speak of His unfinished work. By that, I mean that He is busy now in heaven. He is ministering in the sanctuary, in the tabernacle not made with hands, in the real presence of God.
There is a connection between His finished work and His unfinished work now in heaven, just as the shoulders on the ephod were connected to the breastpiece. The finished work and the unfinished work are connected.
In this connection, I love Psalm 36:9:
For with Thee is the fountain of life:
In Thy light shall we see light.
In His light, we see light. Light builds on light. As God opens our hearts to one truth, we become candidates for further truth. Once we see something, we are enabled to see something else, and so on.
I believe there is an order—not that I know what it is, but I believe there is an order—to God’s revelation of Himself. First, He shows Himself one way, and that prepares us to see Him another way.
I know when I was in school, I struggled. I was not a good student, especially in math. I ended up passing, but I do not know how, because I really did not learn much. But I know this: I had to learn arithmetic before I could study algebra. Then came geometry, analytical geometry, and calculus.
If I did not know arithmetic—and I did not—it explains why I had such a time with algebra, geometry, calculus, and so on. As math builds on math, so God’s light builds on God’s light.
This weekend, as God graces us, we want to look in a special way at God’s unfinished work. That is built upon His finished work.
If I have not identified with His finished work, His unfinished work will be rather confusing to me. I need to understand, enter into, and identify with His finished work first; then we can come to His unfinished work.
I know a group like this has been grounded through the years in the truths of God. But I also know that it is possible that some man—or more than one, and I include all you young people as men—may not yet have entered into rest in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we begin talking about the unfinished work, you might be scratching your head. So what I would like to do this morning, God helping us, is show the relationship between the finished work and the unfinished work. Then I want to show the utter simplicity of entering the finished work, and the utter simplicity of entering into and identifying with the unfinished work of our Lord Jesus.
It is so easy to enter into His finished work: you just believe in Jesus. It is no more difficult to enter into His unfinished work.
I am a little nervous as I speak this morning because I do not want to lose anybody along the way. I will be jumping from Scripture to Scripture. So if I lose you, come back to this sentence:
This is the finished work.
This is the unfinished work.
This is how simple this is.
This is how simple that is.
That is it. That is my outline. That is what we are going to look at, God helping us.
Let us begin, then, in Hebrews 1. I want to read the first three verses.
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, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
Who being the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
When I began to introduce the theme that is ringing on my heart, I told you that I felt most Christians were more grounded in His finished work than in His unfinished work. Many Christians are weak regarding His ministry now—what He is doing in heaven.
One reason may be that they have not fully entered into His finished work. The work He undertakes for us now is based on everything He has already done.
Notice Hebrews 1:3: “When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” You are only three verses deep in the book, and He says that He finished the work. He sat down.
The Book of Hebrews begins by telling you that the finished work is finished. What He is about to say is based on that. When He purged our sins, He sat down.
That is why we do not believe in purgatory. Purgatory has the word purge in it; it suggests that the work is not done. But this verse says it is done. He has purged our sin. It is all completed. After the work was finished, He sat down at the right hand of God.
Let me relate the beginning of Hebrews to a title of our Lord Jesus used toward the end of the book, in Hebrews 12:1–2.
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The title is “the author and perfecter of faith,” or “the author and finisher of faith.” Once again, at the end of the book, the Holy Spirit brings His two ministries together.
He authored your faith when you entered into the finished work. That has to do with beginning. He is now perfecting your faith, and that has to do with His present ministry in heaven.
You have the Christ on the cross and the Christ on the throne. The Christ on the cross is the One who authored your faith; now, the Christ on the throne is going to perfect your faith.
There are several great passages that anticipate this present ministry. We have spoken of Exodus 28 and Luke 24. Now I ask you to turn to John 17. We call this the high-priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus.
This is an amazing prayer. As you go through the Bible record, you see that prayer, when Jesus was in the flesh, was one of His holy habits. He did it all the time.
Hebrews 10 tells us that when He entered the world, He was praying:
Lo, I am come
(In the roll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Thy will, O God.
He entered the world praying. We see it throughout His life. He prayed in the desert. He rose a great while before day and prayed. He prayed all night on the mountain. He prayed at His baptism, at His transfiguration, when He fed the multitude, when He healed the deaf man, when He raised Lazarus from the dead, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and while He was hanging on the cross.
Prayer was part of His life. But John 17 is different—different from every other prayer you read in the life of our Lord Jesus. Never was there a prayer like this wonderful prayer.
Most of His prayers were private. One thing that has amazed me is that there is no Bible record, as far as I can find, that He ever prayed with anybody. He never prayed with His disciples in the way we say, “Come on, let us pray together.”
When we have records of His other prayers, we usually have only a few words—perhaps a sentence or two. But in John 17, on the night in which He was betrayed, one day before the cross, He burst out in prayer, and we have the record of the entire prayer.
Forty-six times in this prayer, He mentions His own by name or title. What a prayer this was. They heard it. He prayed out loud.
I believe this prayer anticipates the ministry He was about to enter into: He was about to go to heaven and ever live to make intercession. He was leaving us an example, a specimen, a sample. This is a prelude to the ministry He was about to enter into.
If you want to know what Jesus is praying right now, study John 17. Take it apart. Look at the requests, because the burdens that were on His heart that night, which He gave us in seed form, are exactly the burdens that He prays right now in heaven.
Some commentators see five requests, others seven, and others ten. In my own analysis, I saw seven great requests that He continues to pray right now. But beyond those requests, there are two verses that show a passion encompassing all the requests.
I think if we can see these longings on the heart of the Lord, it will prepare us for Hebrews 1 and 2. They are in John 17:13 and John 17:24.
But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
Those are the two requests: that they might have My joy—My joy made full in themselves—and that they might be with Me where I am.
What was His joy, and where was He? I think if God begins to nail this down, it will really prepare us for Hebrews 1 and 2.
Some look at John 17:24 and say that, when He prayed that they might be with Him where He was, He was thinking about heaven: “I cannot wait until someday they go to heaven and be with Me where I am.” I do not think that is what He was saying there.
I believe He was asking the Father, basically, that we would enter into His finished work. He was someplace, and He wished that we could be there with Him.
Let me give a couple of very weak illustrations. I could not think of stronger illustrations, so you are stuck with these. May God help us.
I think everybody has had the experience, at one time or another, of coming before delegated authority, pleasing them in some way, and receiving the approbation that comes from pleasing that person.
Suppose your boss gives you a project. It takes three months. You finally finish it, and you come before your boss and say, “Here it is.” You stand there sweating as he looks it over. Then he says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Your heart goes, “Ah,” and you feel good because he has approved of you.
Or perhaps someone in the military completes a mission assigned by his commanding officer and receives honor. Or a student hands in an assignment and receives an A. I do not know how that feels.
Whether you are a child who has pleased his parents, an athlete who has pleased his coach, a laborer who has completed an assignment, or a student whose doctoral thesis has been accepted, there is joy in approval.
Listen to John 17:4:
I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.
He had not yet gone to the cross. How could He say, “I have finished the work You gave Me to do”? It was as good as done. In the mind and purpose of God, He simply had to work it out.
He was standing before His Father and saying, “I have finished the assignment. I have finished the work You gave Me to do. I am handing in My paper. I have done it all.”
Picture the Lord Jesus there, because of the joy that flooded His heart when His Father said, “Well done.”
Our Lord Jesus was standing in the place of divine approval. He had come before the Lord with an assignment, and He said, “It is done. It is finished.” He laid it before His Father.
This is bigger than any child, spouse, laborer, athlete, or soldier coming before a leader. All earthly projects have mistakes, flaws, errors, and things done wrong. But the Lord Jesus presented His holy Father, God, with a perfect work.
His hour had come, and He was presenting that work before the Lord. He said, “Now glorify Me.” And He did receive that glory.
I want you to see the ground on which Jesus stands as He stands before His Father and offers a perfect work. God the Father is one hundred percent happy. God has accepted the sacrifice and accepted the blood. God is glorified. God is thrilled. God is happy. There is nothing He disapproves of.
Christ is standing on that ground: blessed by God, accepted by God, favored by God, approved by God, glorified by God, exalted by God, crowned by God.
Then He looks at His disciples and says, “I pray that they might be with Me where I am.” That is what He is talking about: that they might stand on the ground of acceptance on which He stands; that they might know the joy He experiences because God approves and disapproves of nothing.
Christ was standing in that place of divine approval, bubbling over, filled to the brim and flowing over on all sides with the joy of the Lord. He said, “Oh, that they might know that kind of joy, and that My joy might be full in them—that they might know this joy by standing where I am standing.”
I believe that was on the heart of the Lord Jesus that night when He prayed. Hebrews begins with that: our sins are purged, and He sat down.
“I pray that they might be with Me where I am”—sitting now. You see how He is entering into that finished work: that they might be where He is, that they might identify with Him.
How does that priestly prayer anticipate His present ministry? Not only because of the individual requests—that they might know Him, that they might be kept from sin, that they might be sanctified, that they all might be one, that they might know that He loves them as much as the Father loves Him—but because it places every believer on the same footing that Christ is on, receiving the same approval that the Father gave Him.
The Book of Hebrews begins with finality and fulfillment. It begins with the finished work. Brothers, if we are not resting in that finished work, we are not really going to get past Hebrews 1:3 in this marvelous book.
Let me show you how the unfinished work is built upon the finished work. The statement that He “sat down” is repeated throughout Hebrews.
When He had made purification of sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; henceforth expecting till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What does it mean that He sat down? I know you know, but I am going to tell you anyway. Hebrews 10:11–12 says:
And every priest indeed standeth day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins:
But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.
The contrast is between the standing priest, whose work was never done, and our seated Priest, whose work was finished. When your work is done, you sit down. It is time to rest, and you sit down.
That is how Hebrews opens: Jesus, having purged our sins, sat down. He is sitting down, and that part of His ministry is finished. He is resting.
His prayer is, “Oh, that they could know the joy I know. Oh, that they could be with Me where I am”—namely, sitting down.
The Christian life, brothers, is really as simple as pie. I shy away from expressions like “the deeper life” and “the higher life.” They give the idea that this is only for a handful, only for the spiritually elite.
The Christian life is Christ and identification with Him. Right at the beginning of the book, if you are going to enter into His unfinished work, then be with Him where He is and know the joy of standing on the ground on which He stands.
I love George Duffield’s hymn, “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.” But we cannot sing, “Stand up, stand up for Jesus,” if we have not sung the Holy Spirit’s song, “Sit down, sit down with Jesus.”
In order to stand up for Jesus, you have to learn to sit down with the Lord Jesus. Sitting is the foundation of standing. It is all built on that.
I used to teach that the Christian life is sitting down. I would grab a chair, put it down, and say, “What is hard about that? Sit down.” Then I would sit down and say, “Is that hard? You come and try it.”
You know why I do not teach that anymore? Christians would leave the message and try to sit down. I was teaching salvation by works.
It is easier than just sitting down. You are already seated. That is what the Bible says. You do not even have to sit down. You are already seated. Just believe it.
That is how easy it is to enter the finished work. Just take it by cold-blooded faith. He said it. It is done. You are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
Let me come back to the big point. Our Lord Jesus has finished His work, and His great prayer in John 17 is that you could be with Him where He is and experience the joy He experiences as He stands as your representative, approved of God.
He has done it for you. He is there in your place, and He wants you to enter into that.
Once that is settled, we come to the second part. Jesus is God, and God is praying to God for you. Jesus is man, and man is praying to God for you. He knows all about you in two ways: as God, by omniscience; and as man, by human experience. The God-man is your Priest, and He is praying for you.
In order to enter into the wonder of that, we have to start where God starts. We have to be with Him where He is and enjoy what He is enjoying.
Now, if you go through the Book of Hebrews, you will notice that the first seven chapters contain a lot of material. We do not know the human author of Hebrews. God has hidden that on purpose. We have a common denominator: we know God wrote the book, and that is all we need to know.
In Hebrews 1, Jesus is God. He is better than the prophets and better than the angels. In Hebrews 2, He is the merciful Man. There are verses on His incarnation, lordship, humanity, and impeccable life.
Then you come to Hebrews 3, and He is better than Moses. In Hebrews 4, He is better than Joshua, able to take us into the land. There are verses on rest, Sabbath, and the Word of God being sharper than any two-edged sword.
Then you come to Hebrews 5 and are introduced to Melchizedek. Your head starts to swim again. Hebrews 6 contains many deep things: the covenant of God, life within the veil, the anchor of the soul, and Christ as our Forerunner. In Hebrews 7, you are back to Melchizedek and the law.
By the time you come to Hebrews 8, you may be saying, “My head is too much. There is so much there.” Then God says, “I do not want you all puzzled. Let Me summarize it.”
Hebrews 8:1 says:
Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.
“The main point.” That means He is going back over seven chapters and saying, “You heard about this and this and this. The main point is this.”
The King James Version says, “The sum of what has been said is this.” Darby calls it “the summary.” Kenneth Wuest calls it “the chief point.” Whether it is the main point, the sum, the summary, or the chief point, it seems pretty clear: if God tells you the main point and you miss it, whose fault is that?
Let me tell you what the main point is not. The main point is not that there is a High Priest in heaven at the Father’s right hand. That is true, but it is not the main point.
The High Priest at the Father’s right hand is wonderful. Is that true? You better believe that is true. But that is not the main point. That would make a tremendous theme, but it is not the main point.
The main point is not that you understand His present ministry. There are many mysteries in this book about the Lord Jesus, His exaltation, how He was made perfect through suffering, and how, in the days of His flesh, He cried out with tears and a loud voice to be delivered from death. What does all that mean?
The main point is not that you understand such a High Priest. I do not understand all of His sympathy. I do not understand all of His advocacy. I do not understand what it means that He is Mediator of the new covenant. I scratch my head when I read some of those things.
The chief point, the main point, the summary, the sum of everything that has been said is this:
We have such a high priest.
That is the main point. You have Him. Is that difficult? That is the main point of everything said in seven chapters. There it is, brothers, in all of its naked simplicity: you have Him. I have Him.
Forty-seven times in the first eleven chapters, the Holy Spirit gives us the word have: have, have, have, have—over and over again.
If we are going to understand the present ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to know the simplicity of appropriation and what it means to take what we have.
Brothers, may God help us. Do not make it complicated. It is not. Truth is simple; error is complicated. People run to complicated error because they are running from the simple truth.
Truth is a Person, and it makes a demand on your life. That is why people do not want truth. It is not abstract. It is a Person. It is the Lord Jesus.
Let me illustrate it with a diamond. I am not a diamond expert, but I can Google—as well as the next fellow. Well, that is not even true. I am starting to learn to Google as well as the next fellow.
I was shocked to read that diamonds can come in every color, shape, and hue. The rarest, they say, is the red diamond. There are only about eight or ten of them that have been found. According to Google—whoever he is—they are about a million dollars a carat.
I do not know about diamonds. I do not know how carbon atoms work under pressure. I can tell you they are hard, and I can tell you they are shiny. That is about all I know.
But I will tell you this: if I had one, I would be rich. If I had it, I would be rich even if I did not understand it, even if I did not know anything about it.
You can explain a diamond to me. Go ahead and explain it. I have it. It is mine. If you have it, you are wealthy.
I read about the Great Star of Africa diamond in the British Crown, kept in the Tower of London: a 530-carat white diamond worth about four hundred million dollars. One diamond. If I had that, I would be rich.
You may ask, “Can you answer all the questions about it?” No, I cannot. But I have found, brothers, that, as a general rule, stupid Christians are happier than smart Christians. I am serious.
So many Christians feel they have to understand everything, answer all the questions, analyze it, and take it apart. But I have it. I have it. That is the simplicity of it.
You have Him. You might not be able to explain everything. I know there are brothers in this room who know more about Jesus as High Priest than I do. I know that is a fact.
But you do not have Him any more than I have Him. You might know all about it, but you do not have Him any more than I have Him.
The chief point of everything that has been said is this: you have such a High Priest.
We are going to look at a few things. Maybe we will touch a few mysteries. Do not worry about that. May God burn into your heart the simplicity of the present ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whether you ever understand it or not, whether you are ever able to teach it or not, whether you are ever able to enter into the fullness of it or not, you have it. You have it. That is the glory of it.
I have such a High Priest. You have such a High Priest. Basically, everything you ever need to know about the ministry of Christ is boiled down to that: you have Him.
I love Dora Greenwell’s hymn:
I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned;
I only know at His right hand
Is One who is my Savior.
I am not skilled to explain everything. I cannot explain it. But you are not taking this from me: I have such a High Priest at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and you have such a High Priest in the heavens.
Before we look at Hebrews 1 and 2, take the simple step of faith, brothers, and praise God that you have Him.
God is praying to God for you, and you have Him. Merciful Man is praying to God for you, and you have Him.
God makes the Book of Hebrews simple to childlike faith. Everybody looks at the book and says, “Oh, such a hard book. You have to know the whole Book of Leviticus. You have to know the whole Old Testament in order to enter into it.”
No, you do not. You have to come as a little baby before God and say, “Thank You. I have. I may never understand it all, but I have such a High Priest.”
May God enable us to make the main point the main point. That is the main point: that we have such a High Priest.
Sometimes it drives me buggy. I do not know why Christians want to spend so much time on what we know. “Let us learn some more. Let us get some theology.” Others say, “No, let us spend time on what we do. Here is our responsibility.” Others say, “Let us focus on what we give up,” and then we speak about self-denial and sacrifice.
Some say, “Let us learn what we believe. Let us look at what our distinctives are.” How about this? Let us talk about what we have.
We have such a High Priest. It is all about what we possess in Christ Jesus.
I hope you are not disappointed, brothers, to give up your money on a weekend to come to a retreat like this and hear such a profound message: you have Him.
Someone may say, “Oh, you heard Ed Miller. What did he say?” “He said I had Jesus.” “What else?” That is it. That is all I know. You invited me here. You knew you were going to get it. That is all I know.
If God burns that into your heart, it will have been well worth your time and expense to come here. If God begins to let you know that you have such a High Priest in the heavens, that is the chief point.
Now, before we wrap this up, let me relate the main point—“we have such a High Priest”—to the background of this wonderful Book of Hebrews.
They did not realize what they had. They were afraid of losing what they thought they had, rather than resting in what they actually had. They had such a High Priest.
God was writing to those who were clinging to pictures—pictures of Christ. That is the whole background of this book. They had shadows, types, pictures, illustrations, and truth in seed form.
They were so afraid to let go of the pictures because, to them, the pictures were beautiful. How could they think about giving up the temple? For more than a thousand years, they had gone to the temple in the will of God.
It was God’s will to offer animals, keep the annual pilgrimages, and use the priesthood. Now, all of a sudden, they were being told, “The reality is Christ. You do not need to cling to those pictures.”
The writer of Hebrews says, “The chief point is this: you have such a High Priest.” They say, “No, we have the temple. We have the temple with all its chambers, its gates, its gate rooms, its porticoes, its courts, its porches, and its altars. We have the angels, the prophets, Moses, Joshua, the Old Testament law, and the Levitical system.”
“Are you telling us to let it all go and embrace Christ alone, meeting with people in homes and caves?” Remember, they did not meet in a building for about two hundred years.
Some come close to the theme of Hebrews but do not really get it. They say the theme is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. That is not the theme of Hebrews.
In other words, they say that believers had to lay aside all their Jewish traditions, backgrounds, and Mosaic institutions, and then embrace Christianity. That is not the message of Hebrews.
Not Christianity—Christ, unless by Christianity you mean Christ. It is not turning from Judaism, one group of pictures, to Christianity, another group of pictures.
The message of Hebrews is to turn away from all pictures, all shadows, all unreality, and all forms, and embrace the one reality: Christ.
He never called anybody from one group of pictures just to get embroiled in another group of pictures. Christianity has as many pictures as Judaism had, and many Christians need the same message that the Hebrews needed.
It was a great step for these believers to embrace the Lord alone. They did not feel like havers; they felt like losers, letting everything go.
As far as the best scholarship is concerned, Hebrews was probably written about A.D. 68. Do you know what would happen in two years? Everything would be swept away.
God was saying, “You are clinging to things that are going to be swept away in two years.” Many believe God gave the Jews another forty years, from A.D. 30, when Christ died, to A.D. 70.
When Titus came and Jerusalem was destroyed, they were still clinging to those pictures. The message is this: Jesus is the reality, and you have not lost a thing if you have Him.
The sum of everything is this: you have Him. Let go of the pictures. Do not miss the main point. Do not simply exchange one group of pictures for another.
The Sabbath is a picture. Tithing is a picture. Baptism is a picture. The breaking of bread is a picture. The laying on of hands is a picture. Foot washing is a picture. The local church is a picture. Elders are pictures. Deacons are pictures. Veils on the sisters’ heads are pictures. Israel is a picture. Fasting is a picture.
They are all pictures. They are not Christ.
Let me ask you, brothers: if you were hungry, would you rather have a picture of a banquet or a banquet? If you were cold, would you rather have a picture of a fire or a fire? If you were lonely, would you rather have a picture of a friend or a friend?
If you needed transportation, would you rather have a picture of a car or a car? If you needed rest, would you rather have a picture of a vacation spot or a nice vacation?
I have pictures of Lillian all over my study. But when she walks in—wow—I do not say, “Excuse me, I am staring at this picture.” She comes in; it is her.
When I am tired, I do not want a picture of a bed. I want a bed. If I get sick, do not bring me a picture of a physician. I do not want a picture of a physician. When I die, I do not want a picture of heaven. I want the reality.
Christians need the reality, and there is no other reality than Jesus.
Here is the finished work: He has done it all, and He sat down. The simplicity is this: you are seated with Him. Just believe it.
There is an unfinished work, and our Lord Jesus is representing us in heaven. The simplicity of it is this: you have Him.
The chief point of everything is that you have Him. Let go of everything. You have Him. That is the reality.
Brothers, if God works that in us, I think it prepares us to come to Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2. Let us stop there. Let us pray.
Father, we thank You that You have made the chief point so simple. In a fresh way, write in our hearts the wonder that we have such a High Priest.
Set us free from trying to understand it all. We know we do not trust Him as we should. We know we do not study Him as we should. We know we do not serve Him as we should. We know we do not love Him as we should.
But we have Him. Thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen.