 Thank you for connecting once again. We were in Hebrews chapter 4. I see a message here on the chat. Kennedy is saying repeat verse 12 please. Okay so verse 12 basically it says that the word of God is living so we said that the word of God engages with us and it is powerful and then we talked about the functions of God's word where God's word is able to transform us God's word is able to build faith it's able to cleanse us and we saw that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword no cutting between bone and marrow soul and spirit in other words God's word is able to analyze and diagnose the thoughts and intents of our heart so that is in summation what verse 12 is all about and I hope that helps Kennedy. We will now move ahead with chapter 5. We've seen that the Lord Jesus was introduced as a compassionate high priest. When we began Hebrews we said that these believers were quite soaked in their culture and they were aware of several of these Jewish practices and the writer to the Hebrews had to establish the greatness of Jesus the value of salvation which was brought through the death of Christ for them and he had to establish the greater value of these things in comparison to their rituals and practices. So we find that the book of Hebrews addresses many of these practices so starting now we'll talk so much about the tabernacle we'll talk about covenant we'll talk about sacrifices okay high priest so these are all terms that they were familiar with and the writer now has to give them the new new testament or the new covenant perspective of these things now even if we have the slightest idea about what all of these things are we can still see what the writer is actually trying to say so far we've understood about Jesus being a high priest we know that a high priest is somebody who is assigned to take charge of the temple or the tabernacle worship this person is meant to minister to God but at the same time represent the people and that's what Jesus is he is now talked about the high priest he ministers in the presence of God now in heaven but at the same time he is our representative and we saw the beauty of it in those verses Hebrews 4 verse 14 through 16 where a high priest would be chosen from among men to be their representative now Jesus because he had become a man for us and he had gone through the human experiences is now a right representative for us as human beings and not just that his sympathy for us reveals that he is compassionate high priest and that gives us boldness to enter into God's presence despite any of our shortcomings now let's continue to see this high priest and you know who he is and many of the qualities of Jesus as a high priest so come into Hebrews chapter 5 here I want to request somebody to please read from verses one to four then we'll try to understand them every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God he presents their gifts to God and offer sacrifices for their sins and he is able to deal gently with ignorant and reward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses that is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sin sins as well as their and nowhere can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor he must be called by God for this work just as Aaron was okay thank you cool we have talked about some of those attributes earlier where we said that somebody from among men is appointed so Jesus because of his humanity he is appointed for us then he high priest normally offers gifts and sacrifices for sins Jesus did that he did not have to do it for himself but he took our sins in his own body and was nailed to the cross as first Peter 2 24 says so he did offer make an offering for sins but it was not his sins but our sins but the high priest obviously to enter into God's presence first he had to make offerings for sacrifices for himself to cleanse himself and then also for the people okay what else a high priest should be compassionate and compassionate especially for those who are going astray it says now was Jesus like that yes he was greatly like that because what he did was for the entire world and the word of God says while we were still in us when we like sheep you know I have gone astray but still God says that his love came looking for us so Jesus died for us when we couldn't understand why he was dying for us so that shows us the kind of compassion this high priest has for us and he cares for those who are ignorant those who are going astray from him and a high priest because of his own weaknesses he's able to understand those who are facing weaknesses and we talked about our Jesus and his humanity experienced you know many limitations and temptations now verse 3 it says because of this he is required as for the people so also for himself to offer sacrifices for sins we've talked about that and verse 4 very very important no man takes this honor to himself but he who is called by God just as Aaron was so another important thing that we are told here about that high priestly ministry is it's not you know it's it's not by the choice of a human being or the choice of many human beings or democratic it's not like that but it is a sign by God so in a sense you can say that God elects or God chooses God appoints people in that high priestly priestly role we see that in the old testament Aaron was chosen by God and his descendants the Levi tribe they were chosen by God to do the priestly ministry and in the same way Jesus was appointed by God so it's not like any human being can just take it or even Jesus can just take it that he was appointed he was positioned by God chosen by God to be the high priest and that is how you know we would view him so for the Jewish believer that's a great thing because Jesus we already saw how he is the only begotten of the father by inheritance he is so great but at the same time because he lived a life of obedience God gave him that honor again and now the honor of being a high priest is also given by God to Jesus and so the greatness of this high priest is not comparable or incomparable to other human high priests who have been so far and we will see later that actually there is no no more need for any human high priest anymore so let's go ahead and read further from verses five through ten another volunteer please okay Shri Kumar you have something to say let's let's hear from Shri Kumar first and then we will read the next section thank you pastor pastor I want to know one thing that in the Old Testament when we the role of the high priest was so prominent and it was so important but in the New Testament we we never you know even though we know that Jesus is our high priest but we never you know we never use that term or we never use that position of Jesus is it because of the lack of like no we have never heard that the people pray that we are bringing our sacrifices to our high priest in that sense we never used to do though is it because of the lack of revelation or or that that that I just want to know thank you okay Jesus has a high priest so Jesus has a high priest I am not sure Shri Kumar because I think it's not really it's not the lack of revelation we don't understand and many of us know that he is a high priest he has function in that role of a high priest and even now he is in the presence of the father making intercession but at the same time he has he is that representative of the people as well but for whatever reason we we don't mention it I don't know I don't know why anyone else would you have an answer to that question yes yes mangy yeah please go ahead yeah thank you pasta Jesus is our high priest and we don't have to represent it because there's only one high priest to the religion that we forgot and he was the one who with his blood claimed the temple in heaven and with his blood we were all forgiven so it is an act that cannot be repeated it was something that we've done once and everything else was finished so our freedom salvation everything was done and it cannot be repeated so that's why we don't we don't imitate him or we don't do anything thank you yeah thank you mangy that makes sense to me so Shri Kumar Roman mangy saying is because that work that major work is already done of you know sacrificing himself and these these practices cease to exist we no longer call Jesus the high priest though he is okay so that's mangy's take on it and I'm quite convinced by that is that all right yeah thank you pasta thank you mangy I believe that is okay okay sure thank you thank you so much yes Divya yes thank you I just wanted to also add like maybe it's also because it's in a Jewish setting that the author is writing this so it makes more sense for the Jews to understand the high priest in terms of that sort even when they talk about the tabernacle and all those things it makes more sense for the Jews rather than a new testament I mean to say a Gentile believer yeah thank you yes thank you Divya so familiarity because they are more familiar than these terms are useful for them they have a better understanding but for us yeah we've we've received the truth but we don't necessarily repeat these things often enough so that would be the case yes Christopher yes also maybe something to add and it also relates to what mangy mentioned is that you know the the term high priest is kind of got a human connotation to it and you know Jesus is has you know has has is not human I mean he is not I he's not in the earth anymore so you know it's he's he's got his right he's gone back to his right foot place next to God the father to him as you know the high priest from a from a human aspect but you know he's just you know worship him and communicate to them as as as as a God basically so yeah that's what I want to start sure so we see Jesus in his role of being God and acknowledge that more often as compared to his earthly role of or rather his role of being a high priest okay now as we go through the book of Hebrews we'll also see it's it's a very beautiful thing because the high priest made sacrifices and those sacrifices were you know primarily the ones to remove sin and all the animals but the beauty of of what God has done is Hebrews will tell us Jesus is the high priest but Jesus is also the sacrifice okay so there are all these these things that we will talk about Jesus so then when we're addressing Jesus we'll have to if we are not acknowledging him as high priest often enough you know the question might arise why are we not acknowledging him as a sacrifice often enough but you know these things are all there and we receive these truths but as Christopher Christopher was pointing out we acknowledge him as God ultimately okay and which is why the others sort of take the back seat okay nice nice questions there let's continue with what the author is saying here he talked about Jesus as the appointed high priest so from verses five to ten did anyone have anything to say okay so let's read these verses uh someone could read it out yeah verses five to ten uh so also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest but it was he who said to him you are my son today I have been working you and he also says in another place you are a priest forever according to the order of mercy mercy the chated who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with the human cries the tears to him was also able to save him from death he was hurt because of his godly fear though he was a son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered and having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him called by God as high priest according to the order of mercy of whom we are must say and hard to explain since you have become duller we are in yes thank you Christopher thank you for that so we continue to read about Jesus as the high priest and again the thought that he was appointed so Christ did not glorify himself so it was not our self promotion we read in Philippians 2 that he humbled himself and so God gave him the name which is above every other name so another important thing that we can understand about Jesus says his humility from everywhere the author is pointing to the fact that he is God he you know he was that perfect representative for us and so many wonderful things about Jesus but he did not exalt himself it was God who appointed him God who gave him that name God in this case in this context God who made him the high priest and again there's a repetition of that scripture where God says or the father says to the son you are my son I have begotten you so there is that acknowledging of the belonging or acceptance of the son so within the godhead we see a beautiful synchrony you know a beautiful sort of dynamics going on there where the father the son and the holy spirit it's like they love each other and they honor each other they respect each other and it's all mutual the way this interaction this relationship takes place no wonder you know God expects that in our human in our human relationships because everything that he is he he wanted that to be reflected in who Adam and Eve were and mankind is so it's really beautiful where God is honoring the father is honoring Jesus Jesus was glorified by the father and the father is saying you are my son I have begotten you and you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek so what is the order of Melchizedek we will talk about it now the priests who existed they existed according to the order of Aaron because Aaron was the first person who was anointed as a high priest and his descendants thereafter took over the role of a high priest but Jesus is from another order okay is he is he from the order of the Levites no we know that because he's from the tribe of Judah and nobody from the tribe of Judah was appointed as a high priest but though Jesus was from the tribe of Judah he is from the order of Melchizedek now who is Melchizedek we will talk about Melchizedek in depth in the coming you know the upcoming chapters for now just understand that Jesus is appointed he's appointed according to an order then was seven again talking about Jesus you know the life of Jesus see the the greatness of Jesus is both assigned appointed inherited we've seen those terms but also it is I'm using the word earned with with you know great sense of fear that it's not misunderstood but earned all it's also earned because of the kind of righteous faithful obedient life that Jesus lived towards the father so yes it came by inheritance sometimes we think oh it comes by inheritance it's so easy but Jesus never abused his position he never misused his authority or you know the privileges that were given to him so all this shows a life of incredible humility if there is one person who could have bragged about himself it's Jesus because from every side his greatness is is just uncomparable but then he chose to walk in humility and he chose to walk in obedience now that he's walked in obedience that sort of adds to his credibility okay because of his character because of his behavior his attitude as well so what about Jesus's attitude and behavior from verse 7 it says who in the days of his flesh meaning in his humanity when he when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was hurt because of his godly fear so Jesus was constantly relating to the father and that's why prayers and prayers and supplications with vehement cries it also says tears so this is the time when Jesus went through you could say one of his you know his his valley experiences and that was in the garden of Gethsemane where he was overwhelmed by this reality that very soon he had to go to the cross and so he was crying out to the father we know this right like Matthew 26 where he was saying God if it's possible take it away from me but he was he wasn't anguished because even here the writer uses what like cries tears so anguish very painful situation but even in that painful situation he sees God as the the you know the the provider as a deliverer who it's God was able to rescue me and so I have to talk to God I have to pray so you see that place of dependence on God the way Jesus talked about the wine and the branches you abide in me my words abide in you but here's the reality even Jesus abided in the father like that so that is why he can make a demand from us and say why don't you do the same thing so he depended on the father we generally depend on on you know our our best help during our time of difficulty and here he's depending on the father in his toughest moments so there's a dependence but also the scripture points out his godly fear okay so same thing if we see somebody who has an incredible inheritance let's say you know the family has wealth and this person has inheritance sometimes it gets to people's heads and they can be very rash you know in decisions and relationships because everything's come it's been handed given into their hands but look at the attitude of Jesus even though he has inherited greatness a great name son sonship from the father there is godly fear associated with Jesus again Isaiah chapter 11 verse 2 also says the spirit of the Lord the spirit of the fear of God so that is reverence so how was the life of Jesus it was a life of reverence so there was never a proud you know a very insensitive way of of living life but no it was a life which chose to honor God reverence God you know walk in the fear godly fear unto the Lord so that's how Jesus lived and he was walking aligned with the father that's something we are seeing here was it though he was a son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered so he's already a son and he is perfected was Jesus perfect yes he was perfect in the sense that you know we we read how though he was tempted he was yet without sense so he lived an overcoming life he lived a perfect life even though you know he was perfect the Bible does talk about Jesus learning obedience through suffering now very often this question comes you know to the teachers of God's word when we talk about God's love and God's grace and how God is not the author of suffering God does not inflict sickness and disease on people the question arises people say hey but through these difficulties through sickness disease many times people become better they they are transformed they develop better attitudes so do you think God can give sickness and disease to make people a better version of themselves well when we answer this question one thing that we have to establish is that say God does not uh God does not put you know sickness so he doesn't want to put us into trials and things like that okay however because we are in this world we do encounter the things that happen in the world like sickness disease there are trials however you know we also see that sometimes God does let us go through tests but tests are always to promote us tests are always to help us come up higher in God but when it comes to uh trusting us into trials and sickness and disease God doesn't he's not the author of those things however the other side is that challenges and difficulties can help us become better people depending on our response okay so we shall we cannot downplay that can sufferings make a person better uh actually the answer is yes if they respond properly to those sufferings they can because even in the life of Jesus it says he learned he learned obedience so wanted to produce a life of difficulties I uh when I was in school or college I had seen a book which uh I forget the title now but something to the uh to the essence of make use of your adversities you know uh something like that and I used to wonder like how good how can you make use of the difficulties sometimes life just happens you don't plan to get sick or you don't plan to have a loss or a failure or undergo an accident something happens these things we don't plan but even if things go wrong what can what does the Bible tell us see in sufferings with the right attitude we can actually we can actually gain from it and no wonder James again no he says when you go through all kinds of trials difficulties rejoice he says because for a believer even difficulties trials sufferings these things cannot crush us we can only get stronger even if such things come our way and that is the example of Jesus first he used sufferings to learn obedience to God and even we can do that we can become more obedient to God because of the sufferings that we may be going through was nine and having been perfected so here again people ask the question wasn't he perfect enough that he needed to be perfected but let's understand this in the context of his human experience it says that he dealt with them well he dealt with them in the right manner to benefit from those sufferings so having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek I hope he understood that are there any comments on that or I'll just go forward with Muslimin okay so let's proceed if if at all anyone wants to interject you can sure okay so the next section here versus 11 through 14 would we have a volunteer please about this we have much to say and it is hard to explain since we have become dull of hearing but though by this time we have had to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God you need milk not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child but solid food is for the mature for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil okay thank you Asha this section is about maturity so so far there were different themes which were relevant to the Jewish people and through it all the author tried to establish established Jesus's greatness and also talk about how faith is important to keep continuing in the rest that God provides and you know now he he said that even Jesus he went through sufferings but through those sufferings he learned obedience and now continuing in that in that with the intention of encouraging the believers bringing them up higher he he has this section in here which is telling them to become mature in God maturity is very important in our Christian work when we become a believer it's just the beginning of the journey where are we joining to what is the end result you know Romans 8 29 it tells us that the ultimate goal is to become like Jesus you know that is what God wants for us we must become like Jesus and that is maturity become like Jesus in our character become like Jesus in our integrity become like Jesus in the power of God's word demonstrated through our lives so become like Jesus in everything from verse 11 you know it's a word of exhortation where he says of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing so it sounds very negative but it's what he's saying is see all these realities and the truth is before you but your discouragement is not letting you see these things and he's reminding them by now from verse 12 he says for though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food so he's actually feeling bad and he's telling them that you know the fact is that all of you should have been at a great you should have covered a long distance in your journey by now because that is the potential which all of you have but then what has happened you have remained in that position of immaturity maybe because of your discouragement maybe because of your interest in worldly things that the things of this world have taken such a part in you such a place in your heart that you're not able to fully yield to God and make that journey of maturity so he's even saying that if at all you would have yielded to the word of God and walked in obedience by now you as believers you could have become teachers or he's saying see what is the quality of mature believers mature believers are like you know just take the example of parents and children parents are people who nurture you know they know how to take care of themselves and at the same time they take responsibility for their young children to train them to provide for them to help them guide them so we would say parents are mature whereas little children are not mature because they are still very dependent they cannot even take care of themselves so that's the point he's making here he's saying as believers you should have come to that position of being able to nurture others long ago but look at you he says you should have been able to teach others the oracles of God or the truth of God's word but you are still in a place here's the second quality one quality of mature believers is that they can take care of themselves and the faith and they can help others now the second quality of mature believers is they are able to accept or they are able to understand and receive depths of God's word so God's word by now we recognize that you know there are there are greater levels that we can go to in the word of God for a young believer like a little child can only consume milk you know no parent will will feed a less than a one-year-old meat or you know something that they're not able to digest because they don't have the capacity they've not developed the capacity and that's a sign of like a physical immaturity you know in that point of that child's life hopefully as they grow they will get the ability to digest solid food but here he's saying as believers the second quality of maturity is we should not remain in the basics all the time if we remain in the basics all the time somewhere we are missing out that maturity you know get into solid food stop drinking milk get into solid food then verse 13 he says for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe again third thing if you want to notice here he uses the word unskilled unskilled unskilled is you know if you if you give some instruments let's say sculpting instruments to somebody who doesn't know sculpture and give them a piece of rock or wood or something and say okay come on work on this they wouldn't know how to chisel away unnecessary parts and what to do and they wouldn't have the skill to sculpt out something beautiful but at the same time when you give it to a skilled person basically skill means they know how to use the word or they know how to use the instruments so in the same way maturity is to be able to use the word apply the word how do I plant the word in my own life my needs you know my situations and even if somebody comes up to us we are able to use the word and say hey okay I think this is what God's word is saying in your situation so the ability to use the word again is a sign of maturity verse 14 he says but solid food belongs to those who are of full age so notice full age teachers skilled those who are able to eat solid food all these are references to a more mature believer okay was journeyed in the Lord and come to a stronger position in God so here he says full age or somebody who's grown up in God that is those who by reason of using use have their senses exercise to discern both good and evil so what is this basically it's saying you know how we look at older people in our in our communities and we go to them for advice or we go to them for counsel because they have experience they can they can because of their experience they can tell okay this would be the right decision or you know something would be the wrong choice in the same way when it comes to the use of God's word when there is a believer who has lived in the world so much they have studied it they've applied it they have taught it they've used it so much in their lives very quickly such a believer can tell this is right that is wrong okay so discerning the ability to discern is another quality of a mature believer they can tell right from wrong but a young believer may not be able to tell what is correct what is not correct everything is in the word but how do we apply this what is the right thing to do they may not be able to tell so the ability to discern is also something that a mature believer has so notice there the ability to discern comes from exercising the senses or our spiritual senses when we are constantly using them okay in prophecy we talk about this isn't it a lot of people ask this question how can I tell if it is God how can I tell if it is God you know my own opinion well if you have done it over and over and over again okay if you have exercised your senses to hear from God you know at some point you're in a place where it doesn't take much to recognize and say this is God God is telling me to do this okay because we have exercised our spiritual senses our sense of seeing our sense of hearing our sense of discernment and we are able to tell distinguish or judge right from wrong okay so let me take a quick pause here any thoughts about maturity before we jump into Hebrews chapter 6 growing up in God yes Sivya thank you first so when we first discussed regarding how Jesus Christ was perfected or he learned obedience through suffering so is that and the maturity part right is that related that's my question is that related so Jesus Christ learning obedience through suffering is that is that maturity is that what you're asking yeah like that perfection right coming into perfection so is that so for a believer from a believer's point of view we are also like maturing into that into that perfection through you know we out to actually the author is saying that we ought to mature into that perfection so I believe even obedience like that suffering and obeying to God's you know God's working in our lives yielding to it is also part of that maturity right yeah that's that's true because see over there it says Jesus he was perfected through his obedience and over here I'll just look up that word full age those who are of full age in the in the Greek there is a word called telios which refers to maturity okay I I think there's another passage yeah in Ephesians 4 that word is used till we all come to the perfect man telios now that telios is related to this full age so yes even here perfection is being talked about talked about the kind and Jesus also became perfect through his obedience right so our goal is to become more like Jesus so if sufferings through his obedience in the event of sufferings that made him perfect and obviously it's the same way it'll work in our lives also so our obedience is very necessary for us to mature in God okay thank you thank you yeah sure thank you any other thoughts about maturity spiritual maturity okay Kennedy has a point here what what do you mean by spiritual sense against physical sense okay so Kennedy spiritual sense or senses are the ability of our spirit man and we have learned in other courses that our physical man you know has senses like we can see we can taste we can touch we can hear so similarly our spirit man also has senses more if you will if not just these few senses that I mentioned our physical senses the spirit man may have many more senses many more senses and those spirit senses have to be to be developed okay like for for someone who is a foodie or someone who is into the food business you know obviously they they may they may have trained their their sense of taste to they may have exposed it to a variety of of tastes and you know their their sense of a taste thereby has been developed similarly when it comes to our spiritual senses when we are exposing ourselves to the word of God to the voice of God and you know all those things what happens is we become more discerning and our abilities become more fine tuned you know and thereby we are immediately able to distinguish what is spirit what is flesh and I hope that answers your question okay great all right so I think we will wrap up here because we need some continuity when we step into Hebrews chapter six and so I'll start off with the next class let's pray and close off for today I would like to request anybody to lead lead us in a word of prayer should I pray yes thank you father thank you Lord for this beautiful session Lord that you gave us the opportunity to attend how a blessed pastor Nancy bless every student here whatever truths Lord we learned about you about your works Lord in relationship with the father in relationship with us Father Lord the spiritual maturity father that we all Lord should aim towards above we pray Father that you help us grow into that perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ Lord thank you and praise you bless each one for the rest of the sessions father we thank you we praise you and Jesus Christ just let me pray amen amen thank you Divya thank you everyone have a blessed day and a wonderful weekend ahead we will connect again next week up until then please to go through the book of Hebrews I read it a couple of times over and over again thank you bye for now thank you thank you