 Okay, so we'll pray and begin. Maybe I'll just say a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this new day. Lord, we thank You for the new week ahead of us, Father God and Lord, even as we begin this week with Your Word, we pray that, Lord, You will strengthen us. Lord, You will enlighten us, Lord. Father, You will draw us closer to You and help us, Lord, mature more in Your Father. We comment ourselves, Lord, I comment myself as I share Your Word, that Your guidance be upon me. And Lord, everyone who joins, Lord, everyone who connects to this class, Father God, we pray a blessing in Jesus' name and pray that their spiritual understanding, O God, will be fruitful. And, Father, that they will be blessed, O God, with what You are speaking to their hearts. Lord, we thank You once again, Lord, for giving us this opportunity, Your Word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, so we have been studying from the book of Hebrews and we went on to Hebrews chapter 4. And in Hebrews chapter 4, the main theme that runs across the entire chapter is rest. The kind of rest that is communicated here is the God kind of rest, a rest that God Himself chose after six days of engaging in the creation of the world. This rest is given by God and from what we read, we understand that God wanted this rest for everyone. If this rest were only to refer to Joshua and Him leading people into the Promised Land, then the rest would already have been given to God's people. But it wasn't so. That rest, the children of Israel entering came in, was a picture or it was a type or shadow of the God kind of rest that God truly wanted for every child of His. And that is what we are talking about in Hebrews chapter 4. And this rest is a promise. The promise remains of entering His rest. Entering His rest is also telling us that there is an effort which is required to experience the God kind of rest. So, how do we take the initiative? How do we make the effort to receive this rest? We saw how God is inviting people to have faith, how God is warning His children against unbelief and disobedience. The example given here is that of the children of Israel and how they missed out entering the rest of God, the promises of God because of their hard hearts and their stiff-knit attitude against God. And so the writer of the Hebrews is encouraging the discouraged, the persecuted believers and saying that no matter what you are going through, continue to have faith in God. Keep your beliefs strong, obey God. So, when you do that, you are able to experience God's rest. In verse 3, he says, My rest, God's rest. And later, we also see how God seized from His works. So, in the way in which God experienced His own rest, He stopped all His tasks, His assignment. So, that also shows us that the God kind of rest or us depending on God is based on what Christ Jesus has done for us. So, when we seize from our works, it doesn't mean that we go on a long vacation or take a long holiday. Even if we are serving the purposes of God and we are working very hard, it is possible to walk in the rest of God because the rest of God that we are trying to understand here, it's a spiritual rest. It's a spiritual rest. So, when I accept what Jesus has done on the cross and I am not striving to receive salvation, oh here, the believers are the audience. So, it's not about receiving salvation anymore, but it's about resting in that salvation. Knowing that through Christ Jesus, I have received redemption, I have received forgiveness of sins, I have received the blessings to overcome in this life, I have received eternal life. Resting in these things depending on these things and being readily obedient to God is what is required of a believer. And when one is depending on God and not striving to make it happen, or in other words, trying to earn our salvation, salvation by works is how we define that attitude. So, when one rests on what Christ Jesus has done, then we can experience this rest in the rest of God. So, as an individual, I can have the rest of God through my faith, through my obedience. Now, this does not necessarily mean only physical rest. Even when we are striving for the Kingdom of God, we can still experience God's presence and peace and refreshing in the midst of the work that we do. But this work is not to earn our salvation. This work is from a place of contentment because we are living our lives to fulfill the purposes of God. That's what verse 10 says, for he who has entered his rest has himself also seized from his works as God did from his. So, once you rest on the work of the Lord Jesus, it is similar to God himself stopping all his works and resting on that seventh day. So, then he encourages the believers and tells them be diligent to enter this rest. It sounds contradictory. When we are resting, we don't think of diligence. Diligence has to do with consistent work in the direction of something that you want to achieve. So, to get rest, you have to consistently move in a certain direction. What is that direction? Because this is a spiritual rest which we are talking about, faith and obedience. This is the activity which is required for us to enter into the rest of God. So, keep that consistent in our lives. Keep the faith level high, keep yourself obedient to what God is saying. And if you notice, he also said, if you hear the voice of God today, if you hear the voice of God, don't be like those people who are disobedient in the wilderness and they experience God's judgment in various ways. Instead, be sensitive, respond to whatever God is suggesting, instructing each one of you. So, that is what the piter tells the listeners. Moving forward, we had come to verse 12 and here we were talking about the word of God and that's where we stopped. It says, the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged soul. Piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give a calm. So, as he is talking about responding to God and being obedient to him, he now makes a short note on the word of God which is what we need to live by. And he says, the word of God, what is the characteristic of the word of God? Jesus himself is the word and he studied that but the word of God is living and powerful which means that it is able to work. It is able to do something. It talks about the activity of the word of God. Living means very relevant, powerful which means that it has the, it is able. Now, if you consider a volcano, some regions of the world have volcanoes which maybe we know that they are alive but they are dormant. What I mean by that is, maybe some, some part of, you know, in some type past it has been an active volcano and for whatever reason now it is quiet. But people can predict and say that at a certain point again it is going to be active. So we use these terms active, dormant. So the active volcanoes are showing the energy that they have and the strength that they have to destroy and all of that. However, when you look at the word of God, it is not just powerful, it is living. If you have a dormant volcano, it is not doing much. There is not much activity going on right now but you never know. It might become active at some point in time but the word of God is both living and powerful. So it is active and accomplishing what it needs to be doing. That is the way we look at it. It is alive, very relevant, powerful. It has the ability to do God's work and you see the next portion describing the word of God. It says sharper than any two-edged sword. So when we hear God's word, it ministers straight to our hearts. We don't understand how it hits the target but it always does. We go back to the speech or the sermon that Peter gave in the book of Acts, the very first one. As soon as people hear and speak, they say, okay, tell us what should we do? So that is a response from the people because the word has touched their hearts. So it's like a sharper than a double-edged sword. It goes and touches people's hearts. Sometimes there can be many people, let's say a half a million people, listening to one sermon. But when you check with the people, how did you like the sermon? Each one can tell you a different story that when I was listening to the sermon, God spoke to me in that way. So you see there that God is able to touch every heart. That is sharper than any two-edged sword because the word is like that. The quality of the word is like that and that is our confidence even when we reach God's word. Remember, I told us in the last class that when we speak the word that God accompanies with signs and wonders. So whenever we minister God's word, this is our confidence. God will accompany that with signs, miracles and wonders and at the same time God's word is sharper than any two-edged sword. It will work in people's hearts. Then we are seeing even to the division of soul and spirit. If you go back to the course on the human soul, we've understood that man is a tripartite being with spirit, soul and body making up his entire constitution. Now there is a division between the soul and the spirit. The spirit we know is what comes, is, now once somebody is born again, the spirit is completely transformed. But the sanctification, the transformation is happening steadily in our soul and of course it is impacting our bodies as well. The soul, it's called like psyche or suke comes from that root word. It's the seed of the activity of our emotions, our will, mind. So mind, will and emotions are what you have in the soul. The word of God has the ability to help us discern between the spirit and the soul and of joints and marrow. How does that help? In continuation again it says the word of God, it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So it's doing some work in us to help us recognize what is really from God and what is from our flesh. And every time we make a decision for simple things or for great choices in our lives, we have to be careful that we don't make a fleshly decision, isn't it? So how can I make sure that I am aligned to the purpose of God? If I dwell in the word of God, my ability to understand what is from the spirit and what is from my soul or just myself, my flesh, that area. It will increase, that ability will increase. So the word of God will tell us, so we can use the word of God. And I think we've talked about this in detail, I will not go very much in depth into this, but when we studied about the prophetic ministry in the last class, there we have seen that for one to discern, am I really hearing from God or is it myself? We need to have a good knowledge of the word of God. So how does the word of God have piercing even to the division of soul and spirit? What if I don't have the foundation of God's word? I'll wonder and wonder and wonder. You know, it feels like a prophetic word, but is it from God? Is it me? Is it accurate? I will not be able to conclude accurately. However, when we become well versed in God's word, God's word has the ability to help us make that division between soul and spirit. So we have to depend on God's word. And of course it says, discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart. So it searches the heart. We use a torch to search out something that we need. We get rid of unnecessary things in our way and move right towards what we need. So in the same way, the word of God actively searches, what is from God? What is not from God? If there are things not from God, of course, the Holy Spirit will work together with the word. There will be a conviction in our hearts. And then the way the writer said, today, if you hear God's voice, then you must respond to it. We can have God's word working in our hearts and then walk with faith. Walk with obedience. We will experience God's rest. And the scripture also continues to say, And there is no creature hidden from his sight, But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. So you see, along with the encouragement which is coming to a struggling people, there is also a warning. Discouragement is not a license for us to slip away from God. So while the writer is being gentle, he is slowly trying to build the spirit of the listeners. He's also throwing in warnings here and there. And he says, look, don't forget that we serve and only God knows all things. He knows how our hearts are. And just now he said that the word of God is like the touch. It can look into our hearts. And so we want, know that each one of us have to give an account or we are answerable for our choices. We are answerable for the lives that we live. We are going to stand before God and be judged for the life that we have lived. So there is a warning that he kind of mixes together with the encouragement. Now, his focus is always the Lord Jesus. He began by describing to the people that the Lord Jesus is God or deity. And then he went on to describing him as the special Son of God because not only is he fully God, but he is also fully man. That is the mystery. How can that be? Until today, people find it difficult to explain fully God and at the same time fully man. That is the Lord Jesus. So keep your focus on him. Once again towards the end of chapter 4, he's coming back to that focus and he's saying that, you know, you must continue to keep your eyes on Jesus. Why? Because he says, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. So now he's introducing the Lord Jesus as the high priest and not just any high priest. So the high priests who were appointed here on the earth were well respected because they came from a certain tribe and there was a promise given that God would hear their prayers for Israel. And they were authorized to make sacrifices to atone for people's sins. So there were all these rituals which they would carry on and they were greatly respected. Here is what he's sharing with the Jewish believers and he's saying in Jesus who you already know as deity, human being, Son of God and one more feature. Great high priest. Why is he great? So he gives one particular reason here, he says, who passed through the heavens. Now is there any other high priest before the Lord Jesus who went into the heavens? We know that Jesus ascended into heaven, right? And he's at the right hand of God. Nobody before the Lord Jesus could do something like that. Jesus overcame death. He even was resurrected or ascended up into heaven and now he is directly in the presence of the Father. He has passed through the heavens and no wonder he is our great high priest. So when you have a high priest who has access to the Father in this way, he just says that your faith, your confession won't fast your faith upon the truth of God's Word. Because this is the ultimate. A high priest is also in the presence of God unlike any other high priest that you and I depended on. And so what is the need for you to worry? Don't worry. We have the most dependable great high priest. He is unique. He is glorious. He is greater than anyone that we have seen. So that must bring us greater assurance and confidence to continue our faith in Jesus Christ. So that is the encouragement and now he begins to describe this new feature of Christ our Lord that is the high priest. Him as the high priest and he adds to this quality and he says, look, this high priest whom we have, he can sympathize with our weaknesses. So usually the high priest would be taken from among the people to represent the people. If we have, I don't know which situation to talk about, but okay, let's say, you know, some community that is fighting for justice or some community that is asking for better facilities. They approach the government. Who would they send? They would not send someone from another community because the other person may not understand the challenges which they are facing. But usually they would pick somebody from their own community who is dependable, who is able to communicate their needs. And they would send this person to a government office or to a current leader, member of parliament or somebody in the legislative assembly and you know, they would be able to communicate everything that their people are going through. So high priest was selected like that. Of course, a high priest was chosen because of God's calling. But in general, when you look at the nature of the high priest, the high priest was meant to be a representative of the people. And so now we are reminded that Jesus is a high priest who represents us. Now if he were not to become a human being, it's very hard for him to understand what we are going through. But because he was a human being also, we see that he was able to represent us. He understood what it means to experience limitation. He understood what it means to experience a roadblock. So he understood what it means to experience opposition from people. So having experienced all these earthly challenges, when we go to a high priest and say, okay, this is the struggle that I'm going through. He would say, I understand. I understand what you're going through. Now if we go to a high priest and talk about how difficult it is to live an obedient life for God, Jesus wouldn't say, oh, you weak person. No, that is why we are being told here, the kind of high priest, the great high priest, one is he passed through the heavens. The second is he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. You know, parents are the best example for this. And they have gone through challenges in their school years and the children may be struggling with certain subjects. Yes, the parents may scold them and correct them and all that, but they also realize it is hard for my child. I need to encourage my child or maybe intuitions, something because there is sympathy. And you could go further and say there is empathy. They feel as if they are only going through it. And that is why they're able to support their children very well. And it's the same picture here. When we go to Jesus, he does not push us away or condemn us. Instead, he sympathizes with our weaknesses. So what are our weaknesses? Our human weaknesses. That's what this is referring to. And further, it tells us how did he share in the nature of human beings? It says, in all points, tempted as we are. So Jesus also suffered the tactics or the schemes of the devil for temptations. Many kinds of temptations. He suffered under it. But here is the beauty. Yet without sin, scripture says, Hebrews 4.15. In all points, tempted as we are. Yet without sin. So it's the picture of an overcomer. It's the picture of somebody who has been in our shoes and overcome. So we always look up to somebody like that. Who has been through challenges like us, has not given up. Instead, has made it. So in the case of our human weaknesses, when we feel like we want to quit this race of faith, or we are struggling to take the next step, we look to Jesus. Because he can understand us. He won't say, how could you feel so weak? How could you behave like this? Because he knows. I know how you feel as a human being in the midst of the challenges that you are going through. I will help you because I have already overcome. That's the way Jesus will respond to us. And so why is the writer telling us this? Even in our weaknesses, he does not want us to run away from God. Because we can have a tendency to come to God when we feel the strongest. And we feel like God wants us to perform. But no, not necessarily. Even at times when we feel like we are failing. And these believers, maybe they thought, oh, we'll leave the faith. It's too hard for us to keep going on with God. But even when you feel ashamed, how can I be like this? How can I be so weak? The good news is, don't run here and there. Again, run to Jesus. Because he is a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. Steped at all points, yet without sin. And in continuation, verse 16 he says, because back then these lines are God's compassion. He says, let us therefore, because we have such a good high priest, therefore is connected to the previous point that he made. Because we have a compassionate high priest. Come boldly. So we don't have to be afraid. Come boldly. God is not going to reject you. Instead, he will accept you. With your weaknesses. But of course, we know that, you know, he will not condone our sins. He will convict us to come out of our sin. So come boldly. Where? You see, this is again very interesting. It says, the throne of grace. So God's throne is described with different words. One of the words is throne of grace. Isn't that wonderful? Grace refers to God's, you know, mercy directed towards us, which we do not deserve. And that is grace. So God's throne is a throne of grace. And over there, he says, we will receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So what a wonderful God we serve. You know, as you study the scriptures, go into the depths of it, it's like, you know, somebody who loves us deeply to understand our every need and who has made provision for all our needs even before we understood them. So here is a throne of grace which God has already prepared and he's saying, I know that you will go through difficult times. Time of need will come in your life. But don't run here and there. Come boldly because I am compassionate. I understand your problems. I understand your challenges. I understand your weaknesses. Come boldly and you can take back what? You can take back my mercy. I will be gracious to you. And grace. So that's all we need. When we've had a tough time, we usually are so blessed when we have friends or family who say, don't worry. It will be better. You will make it. God is great. Greater than that. His compassion towards us. But only thing he wants is we have to acknowledge our position, where we are and humbly come back to him because he has already made provision for us and so encouraging that we serve a God like this. Now in our understanding of God, from the book of Hebrews, we are looking at him step by step. Day to humanity. Then we saw God's rest. And then now we have touched upon him being our high priest. Now we will go ahead and study a little more about Jesus as our high priest. So I'm moving to Hebrews chapter five now, which describes the Lord Jesus and his high priestly ministry. Again, we will come back to him being a high priest later in the book of Hebrews, but some thoughts can be built from here. So we are told that Jesus is our representative and he has been chosen to go to God on behalf of us and do all the required ministry in the presence of God. Okay, let me just read it for you, then there will be more clarity. So from verse one or somebody read it, I think it's better. Hebrews chapter one verses one to four you can read that. Who's able to read it? Anyone comfortable? Hebrews chapter one, ma'am? No, five. Five, sorry. Did I say one? We are moving on to the next chapter, no? So Hebrews chapter five, yeah. Okay. Chapter five, one through four. Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to be offered sacrifices he has to to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God just as Aaron was. Okay. Thank you. Thank you there for that. So you understand here that the high priest is a representative from among the people and does his ministry in the presence of God for the people. He is generally considered to be compassionate because he can understand the weaknesses of the people whom he represents. Now when we talk about Jesus we already said that he is overcome every temptation. So was he weak? Now we are talking about Jesus being our representative because he put on humanity and humanity has its limitation. So those are the weaknesses we are referring to. We are not referring to sin because there was no sin in Jesus. But he understood the weakness of humanity. That's how we interpret that. And we also see here that there is a selection that will appoint someone as a high priest when you talk about the priesthood of the tribes. Only the tribes of the Levites was chosen to be those high priests. So in the same way we will see that the Lord Jesus is somebody who is chosen by God. For the Jewish people it could have been a difficult thing to grasp that Jesus is a high priest. Why do you think so? Why do you think they would have struggled to accept Jesus as a high priest? What are your thoughts? The first thing is he was not from the tribe of the Levites. Good. That's right. What else? What else about Jesus? Anyone else? As Dave said he was not from the tribe of the Levites and you are not from the tribe of Jesus. He wasn't someone who went and did those sacrifices on behalf of the people physically in a temple setting. He is not somebody who wore an ephod or was authorized to wear the kind of ephod that the high priests wore. They had stones on the ephod so there is a typical image of a high priest and Jesus did not fit that bill. First of all through origin as Dave rightly pointed out he is not from the tribe of the Levites. So these are all hindrances for the Jews to accept Christ Jesus as the high priest and they were struggling with it but here there is being provided for the people to understand the deeper truth about how Jesus is a more qualified high priest than the high priest whom they have seen in history. So we continue again from verse 5 in this same passage we see that God appoints Jesus. There is a quotation from the book of sound where the father he tells the son you are my son today I have begotten you. And in continuation you find another verse here which says you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So once God has spoken and said that you are chosen you are my son that by inheritance the Lord Jesus is another son and that the Lord Jesus is a high priest what kind of a priest? He is one who is a priest forever. So again in comparison to your levitical light of priesthood this is very different so every term the priest would change for example. But that is not the thing with Jesus. He continues to be the high priest and he will remain so he is our priest forever and what order is he from? Because that is the next question the Jews will have. Are you from the line of Aaron? Because he mentioned Aaron. Aaron is from the Levite tribe. Jesus is not a descendant of Aaron but the connection is being offered to a person called as Melchizedek. Who is Melchizedek? We will come to that in detail we will understand Melchizedek and his origin however for now it is enough for us to understand that this high priest that Jesus is very special compassionate who is in heaven for us he is from the order of Melchizedek and he is forever high priest forever nobody can dethrone him or replace him so that is why he is such a special high priest for us. Now the doubt that the Jews had was what kind of offerings did Jesus bring to God like a high priest. So now he is going on to explain that what kind of offerings Jesus actually gave. So what we will do is I think we have only one more minute left we will pause here and then we can pick up and continue with this particular passage. Let's go for a break it's 949 we can come back at 959