I am excited about Fr. Gabriel leading our journey through the Letter to the Hebrews. He anticipates covering Hebrews 1-2 this Tuesday. Please take the opportunity to read through the entire letter. All you will need on Tuesday nights is a Bible. As background to our study, I am reading through William Barclay’s Letter to the Hebrews and Luke Timothy Johnson’s excerpt on Hebrews in The Writings of the New Testament.
In the other epistles, the writers generally address multiple issues. Unlike these epistles, however, the entire Letter to the Hebrews is one sustained argument and apologetic for the Christian faith. The writer, who may have been Paul or someone else, takes us through the Hebrew Scriptures and shows us the superiority of the New Covenant in Christ over the Old Covenant of Moses and the prophets. Reading the entire argument gives us a better sense of what each portion of the argument leads up to.
If you do read through the whole book, please go back and read closely and carefully through chapters 1 and 2. Please use a study bible if you have one. Within the first two chapters, the writer uses multiple quotations from the Old Testament to show Christ’s superiority to the angels. If you have the opportunity, review Psalms 2, 97, 104, 45, 102, 110, and 8 to gain an understanding of why the writer would have chosen these Psalms to argue his position. As you read through the seven psalms, think about how the interpretation of these psalms changes in light of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
SCHEDULING – Because I’m not leading a small group this week. Randy+ is allowing me to preach on Sunday on Luke’s parable of the dishonest servant.
Dinner is a 6. The menu is pork roast. Teaching about 6:45. Hope to see you here. Please bring a friend.
“I myself have set my king *
Psalm 2:6-8
upon my holy hill of Zion.”
Let me announce the decree of the Lord: *
he said to me, “You are my Son;
this day have I begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance *
and the ends of the earth for your possession.”