 Okay, good morning and welcome everyone. Thank you for connecting to this class. We are learning so much from the book of Hebrews, so today will be another day. Let's see how far we can go. Let's pray and get started. Would anyone be able to unmute and pray please? Shall we pray? Yes. Dear Father, I want to say thank you this morning. Thank you because you are faithful. You are kind, you are good. Thank you for all of us present now. Thank you for what you are doing all over the world by reaching out to the world with your word. Thank you for using us all as a tool, as a instrument. Be that glorified in the name of Jesus. Lord, we commit to these activities, to this letter into your hands. Please Lord, grant us the arts to receive in the name of Jesus and grant us the very best memory in the name of Jesus. Above all, Lord, please, Lord, prepare us for your coming. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much success. So we get back into Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. So let's look at Hebrews 2 verse 14. We see that the Lord Jesus, having partaken of flesh and blood, meaning becoming human, did something for us and that is to die for us. And dying, what it was meant to do is to destroy the power of the devil. And I wanted to let us know that as believers this is a great hope which we carry. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul talks about it. He says that if we don't have the hope of rising up again after death, then we are pitiable than just more than other people out there in the world. But because we carry this hope of resurrection, it really makes our faith so alive. And even in the book of Thessalonians chapter 4, there Paul encourages people who may have lost their loved ones. And he says that they are but asleep. Now they are going to rise again. They are going to come back with the Lord Jesus when he returns. And that is incredible. That may never have been possible unless Jesus died for us. So this verse 14 is telling us that Jesus has done something. He has destroyed the one who has the power of death and that is the devil. So Jesus has overcome the devil. Jesus has dealt with death. Now one of the other struggles that mankind has is the fear of death. It's never a good thing for us to think of death because it seems like the end and it is. If we don't have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore for us as believers, we need to settle in our hearts that Jesus has defeated the devil who has brought about death and he has released us from the fear of death. So verse 15 here, it says and release those who through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to bondage. So that's a great hope that we have in Christ. And Jesus through his humanity has accomplished this for us. Now we can go on. It says for indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. So what does God do? God gives help or he supplies his care and favor to people. And us, he's more specifically, it says seed of Abraham. Who are the seed of Abraham? We who believe in the book of Galatians, we notice that though naturally Abraham has his own descendants, what the writer here is talking about is that he is referring to the believers. So we are the spiritual seed of Abraham. So God gives help, favor and support to us believers. Verse 17, therefore in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. We talked about the humanity of Jesus and why did Jesus had to become a human? One is to defeat the devil to add the power of death. Secondly, to identify in Christology, we talk about these things, you know, substitution, identification, so the Lord Jesus became one of us, he became like us. That is why he's able to call us his brethren. So that's why the term brethren, because he became like us and that also enabled him to be a merciful and a faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God. A high priest was always chosen as a representative of the people. So he must be one among the people, he can't be an outsider. Secondly, he must be familiar with what the people are going through, so that he can represent them well and carry their concerns. Now when we look at the Lord Jesus becoming a man, he did both of these things for us. Firstly, he became a man, so he was one among us, he was our brethren. Secondly, we understand that he experiencing humanity and the challenges of humanity, he could have that merciful attitude towards us and he became a merciful and a faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God. So he is with God now, he's interceding for us, we know he's up in heaven right now at the right hand of the Father, he has done his work of intercession on the cross for us and in these ways the Lord Jesus has become our high priest and it also says make propitiation for the sins of the people. So later on we'll see, there are so many roles that we can attribute to the Lord Jesus. Here one is high priest, we said that he's a high priest but also notice it says propitiation for the sins of the people, later we'll see how exactly he did it, he also became a sacrifice for us. So he's a high priest and he also became the sacrifice and it's really beautiful to discover all that the Lord Jesus is and all that he does for us and again in verse 18 a reminder that the Lord Jesus represents us really well and more than that he is an overcomer, he's left a pattern for us and he's become our example because verse 18 says that he himself had suffered being tempted, he's able to aid those who are tempted. So because he went through the challenges that we go through today, he knows, no we can't look at Jesus and say Jesus you don't understand because he does. Has he been through temptation that may have sort of you know allowed him to give up his purpose? Yes, has he gone through opposition, accusing words of people that brought discouragement? Yes, gave worldly lusts coming after him and you know sort of asking him to live life in a completely different way. Yes, so these are the things that we face today. We Satan wants us to quit, Satan wants us to be distracted, Satan wants us to be discouraged but when we look at the life of Jesus, he was fully man and the Bible says that he went through everything that we went through and that is why he's such a perfect high priest for us. He was tempted and thus he can aid us. So he's the best representative as the high priest because he knows what we are talking about and he knows you know what we need to be able to overcome those temptations. So it's really encouraging for us to know that the Lord Jesus being fully God, he rules and reigns but he loved us so much that he became a man, he became our substitute, he identified with humanity and therefore he became a very merciful and a faithful high priest for us and he himself having suffered being tempted, he now is able to help us who are tempted. So we can look to Jesus and find help in our moments of temptation. Any thoughts or questions regarding what we've discussed so far because we can then move on to Hebrews chapter 3. See a question here in the chat where Jefina says he might destroy him who had the power of death. Does it talk about little death or being spiritually dead? I believe it's referring to both, both yeah. Any other queries about the humanity of Jesus? Okay I suppose we need to really think about these things further and if you come up with questions later that's also fine. So let's proceed. We'll go to Hebrews chapter 3. Let's read from verses 1 through 6 and then we will look at the following portion. So could somebody turn to Hebrews 3 please verses 1 to 6? Chapter 3 verses 1. Therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our confession Christ Jesus who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house for this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house for every house is built by someone but he who built all things is God and Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward but Christ as a son over his own house whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Amen. Amen thank you Rosalind. So here coming to Hebrews chapter 3 it's in continuation to the exaltation of Jesus even in speaking about the humanity of Jesus all he's saying is that he is God who has fulfilled the mandate of saving us and he is exalting the Lord Jesus as God. Now he comes to addressing the believers and notice how he addresses them so he uses some terms like holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling and then he says you know consider the apostle and high priest of our confession Christ Jesus so so beautiful who we are in Christ is who we truly are and the author addresses the believers in this way he knows what has happened to the believers now that the Lord Jesus has redeemed us he already mentioned it we who are being sanctified remember he said that but with that in mind he actually states that the believers are holy and of course brethren so holy brethren that's our position in the Lord Jesus Christ we've been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and he says partakers of the heavenly calling so excuse me every blessing that God has for us in Christ that has been given to us okay and we are partakers of the heavenly calling which means you know our mandate on earth our mandate that will continue in heaven all of that is in Christ and we we are we are participants of what Christ has done for us and we've been positioned in Christ and you know just the whole identity aspect of what has happened to the believers so it's really wonderful to know that in times of difficulty one of the important reminders that we need is who we are in Christ these believers they're going through persecution and challenges and in those moments the author is exalting the Lord Jesus and he's also reminding the believers don't forget who you are it's not just about this natural life that we live but there's a greater life which we have in Christ Jesus and don't forget that person that you and I have become in Christ Jesus holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling and then he says one of the things that needs correction is our focus especially when we go through challenging times so he talks to the believers and says consider consider so what is he saying he's saying your mind is filled with all these these things that you're worried about and you're you know wondering about and confused about anxious about okay let that be shift your focus consider look at something that I will talk about right now who is the Lord Jesus but how does he describe the Lord Jesus okay another aspect to who Jesus is earlier we saw merciful faithful high priest okay Jesus our brother these were some themes that he was uh picking up now he's saying consider that word consider apparently like the Greek meaning of that word is fix your attention okay kathanoi is is that Greek word fix your attention on the apostle so another term apostle and high priest of our confession Christ Jesus so he is the sent one apostle simply means sent one we know that God sent his only begotten son and that is who he's talking about the Lord Jesus our apostle and high priest of our confession so high priest of our confession simply means that you know Jesus stands in agreement to what what we say aligned with the word of God so the Lord Jesus obviously because the word he himself is the word so when we speak aligned to the word of God he is our apostle and our high priest of the confession that we make so he backs it up who was faithful to him who appointed him so this is something for us to remember whenever we make confession aligned to the word of God remember is there anyone to back it up is there anyone who says amen to it is there anyone who agrees with it the Lord Jesus himself he's the apostle and high priest of our confession what is confession confession is agreeing to the word of God he stands behind that and you know we will see the fulfillment of God's word in our lives so keep declaring the word of God keep holding on to the truth of God's word keep holding on to the promises of God because God himself stands behind it and he has become our apostle and our high priest and he the writer goes on to say that Jesus one of the qualities about Jesus is he was faithful to God and the mandate that God gave him now he will talk a little bit about Moses even about Moses he says that this man Moses he was faithful in all his house so he's talking about the household of God the people of God whom Moses took care of and among those people Moses was very very faithful now why is he suddenly bringing in Moses we may have that question he's probably talking about Moses because he's addressing a Jewish crowd and for the Jewish people the patriarchs of the faith people like Abraham Moses Jacob they all carried great honor and like they were they were they were the ones that they revered so much so now he is trying to let them know that Jesus is greater than all of these patriarchs even Moses whom they considered as this great leader and deliverer who brought them out of their their troubles you know back in Egypt and through the wilderness years he says look Moses he was definitely faithful in all his house but in verse three he says for this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses so he's reminding them give Christ Jesus the rightful position he's greater than your Moses we do appreciate Moses but Jesus is greater and then he makes a comparison he he describes something like a house and he says that you know we honor those who work hard to build the house but ultimately who is the one you know who who needs the greatest honor it is the one to whom that home belongs right he's the one who the one who is in charge of that home so he is saying that the Lord Jesus is the son over his house whose house we are if we hold fast to the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end so Moses was something like a worker in the house but the Lord Jesus is the son of the house himself so once again just bringing the attention of the believers to the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ so why is he you know continuously pointing back to Christ I feel like you know two things that we've picked up so far in a period of discouragement reminding people of who our God is who Jesus is and reminding them of who they are in Christ okay that might serve as not just an encouragement but also lead them to worship from where they can draw their strength from where you know they they can overcome the many things that may be trying to bog them down or push them down so that's why he's going on this mode and he never stops warning the people remember early on in Hebrews chapter 2 he said do not neglect okay don't don't don't let go of this faith because there will be consequences so once again he comes back to that warning mode and tells them to not let go of their faith so as we read these passages you know not just the book of Hebrews I think any book of the Bible one of the tendencies which we have is to go through the passages and imagine that they are for somebody else okay that I will never go through this or I can't relate to are there people who just get discouraged and want to let go of their journey with God their faith but it'll never I'm not that person you know we we tend to do that but it's good to see what people have gone through and to just strengthen ourselves so that whenever we go through anything in our lives that might bring us to these positions at least we know right that hey there is this possibility I must never find myself in that place I must not we talked about drifting away and how it happens so subtly and slowly but it can happen to anyone if we are not careful so every message in the Bible there is something that it has got to do with me and the way God is preparing me and strengthening me so as we read about the people of Israel we're going to read about them it's very easy for us to look at it and say oh they were very rebellious you know their hearts were unbelieving but it's good to reflect about our own lives and say God you know do you find rebellion anywhere do you find unbelief anywhere and if so help me Lord to never put myself in the position that these scriptures are talking about so that's why we're going to right now where he will begin to warn us with the example of the children of Israel and how they were careless with their faith so let's read from verse 7 till verse 11 so we'll explain that passage and then go further anyone can unmute and read please therefore as the Holy Spirit says today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness where your father's tested me tried me and saw my works for tears therefore I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest okay so it starts with the therefore therefore is a connecting word because Christ is so great right greater than the angels he has sacrificed himself become our merciful faithful high priest apostle and high priest of our confession therefore because he's so great therefore as the Holy Spirit says he has the Holy Spirit says meaning he is talking about what is on God's heart for us now why is he suddenly saying Holy Spirit says now we all know what the word of God says is what the Holy Spirit agrees with so whether it's the Holy Spirit says or the written word anyone in the Trinity who's speaking to us it is God speaking to us so God says so through all this God is saying something what is he saying today if you hear if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion so he's talking to the believers and he's saying look God is trying to say something through all of this to stand back up live for the purposes of God keep moving forward okay be strong in the Lord know who God is know who we are in Christ all this is what the Holy Spirit is saying but when he's speaking one thing that we need from our sides is a correct response so he tells the believers when the Spirit of God is speaking to us in this way do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion now we know how the children of Israel were time to time you know they were people who did not appreciate God's blessings so they complained they grumbled they they did not trust God so you know they were questioning and they they were making Moses's life difficult they were disobedient they were rebellious so all these qualities are attributed to those people today we can ask the question you know are there any challenges that can harden our hearts what do you think we as believers are there some things that can harden our hearts in our walk with the Lord and what are some of those things murmuring okay murmuring against God no murmuring okay like why God why should I do all this something like that so we are complaining murmuring against God anything else that could harden our hearts which has the tendency to not be impatient okay okay not being patient that's good what else pretend it to love God pretend okay pretending pretending to love God okay sure how about pride pride also could sort of keeping malice keeping malice okay okay keeping malice cheating cheating okay convertiousness spirit of convertiousness okay all kinds of evil fleshly things when we give place to fleshly things in our lives that can bring a hard heart okay so that sounds quite dangerous isn't it a hard heart if if we carry a hard heart as a believer how how I mean how how do you think that that will affect us I'm a believer but I have a hard heart it's coming back here you clearly sorry no I'm saying if one is a believer and they have a hard heart right so how would how would it affect them number one number one if someone at this earth he can never receive message from God because God will never speak to such person even if God is speaking because he has he or she had his heart he will not know that this is God speaking because the heart is already hurting even when God wants for her he will not even consign about it because number one if you had your heart you will not be in the spirit and God is in the spirit yeah thank you success for sharing your thoughts so yes one of the biggest dangers is us not being able to recognize the voice of God and the writer here somewhat he's speaking in that context only he says if you hear his voice today then don't harden your hearts okay maybe by not hearing the voice of God regularly one can come to this place of having a hard heart that even when God speaks we're not able to hear what God is saying so a hard heart it can develop due to many reasons we said fleshly manner of life can cause that to happen where we are living in sin and we are denying that we are living in sin we just continue you know just sort of in a in a bold way continuing in sin that creates a hard we're not responding to the convictions of the Holy Spirit with a tender heart a tender heart in contrast is a soft heart that is responsive to every word that God says every small thing that the spirit of God ministers to us we are quick to respond and say oh okay God you know I repent or I believe or I will do we walk in obedience with a tender heart but a hard heart is one which which you know proceeds in its own way and is not very sensitive to what God's voice is saying now how can this happen one is yielding to our freshly desires and next would be unbelief which we will look at in this passage so primarily when it comes to the children of Israel their problem was unbelief okay they were constantly in unbelief they didn't trust God they didn't they didn't want to say yes to God the way people like Moses did right and they did not want to encounter God deeply the way Moses did so it is very unfortunate because they they went on in unbelief which made God angry and yeah so just two things that I've said here but hardness of heart can also come due to discouragement maybe that is why the author is addressing this particular crowd regarding hardness of heart because when one goes through challenges after challenges but they don't look to God in in the midst of those challenges you know they may feel like what is happening you know why is God not answering why is God not ministering maybe God is angry with me maybe God is not listening to me so okay fine I don't I don't think I will continue with what God wants me to do so even challenges discouragement struggles if we are not careful they can make our heart very hard so in the very verse there you know end of verse 7 the writer uses a beautiful word would you like to take a guess what that word is verse 7 yeah today if you hear his voice so any word there that stands out for us I think Jeffina said today perfect today so that's beautiful because he's teaching us how to have a tender heart before God and that is by responding now respond immediately don't push it off for tomorrow and say okay you know Holy Spirit is speaking me about this I look into it when I feel better I look into it you know when I have the time that is the dangerous part never postpone when the Holy Spirit is convicting us and speaking to us if he's asking us to deal with it we need to deal with it right away so today if you hear his voice respond immediately when God speaks there needs to be a worship a reverent response to what God is speaking and that's our takeaway today that God help us to respond immediately help us not to risk you know having a hard heart now when we look at the children of Israel here he says they had hardened their hearts in the rebellion and they have trial in the wilderness where the fathers tested me tried me saw my works 40 years it's so sad that God even has to explain this he had done so many miracles for them but what was their response testing God trying God how far can we go you know how much can we push where is the boundary line okay let's try it till we can get away in you know within within these things let's get away with whatever we are doing so they were just trying and testing God and look what God says they saw my works 40 years if we see miracles worth 40 years see with your eyes red sea is parting mana is falling imagine like how should our response be towards God but it's so sad to note that though they had seen many miracles they did not understand God so sad but let's not just leave it on that generation maybe today in our time and season we are experiencing and encountering God but we are behaving the same way we know the works of God we've experienced the works of God but we test and try God and we are we have hearts of unbelief we have hard hearts we don't respond immediately these are things that really will put us in a position of risk which is what the writer is trying to say and he's saying that because those people they were like that what what how did God respond to them was 10 I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways so sad everything was done in front of them but still they went astray in their heart focus was not upon the Lord focus was somewhere else secondly they did not understand God his heart they just saw all his activities and that was that but it it didn't go deeper than that so it's really a lesson for us in our generation to carry that soft heart before the Lord that would respond immediately and keep ourselves free from worldliness ungodliness and you know like discouragement and many of the other things that we talked about and again notice he says go astray in their heart so we've talked about the power of the mind and the importance of having a renewed mind as a believer so that's the starting point of seeing breakthroughs for us if we are careless in the area of our mind in the area of our heart see he doesn't talk about actions first but he says go astray in their hearts so that one small thing you know that is taking us away from God did God really say it was just a thought that satan planted in Eve's mind but that thought led to the fall because they took action on that thought so similarly he says they go astray in their heart even for us keeping our heart what we believe are right is so very important and when we are careful about our strengthening our minds with the word of God and you know being rooted and grounded in the word of God it's not so easy to go astray in our hearts so it's a warning and we can keep our hearts in the word of God and know God and unfortunately you know these people they were rebellious and God was angry with them and it also says that he swore that they shall not enter the rest of God so we'll talk about the rest of God when we meet in the next class so at this point we will wrap up any thoughts before we close for today so if there are none let's pray and close I want to request someone to please unmute and pray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we come to you under the name of Jesus we thank you for this day we thank you for the class that we had but we thank you for being our high priest and our sacrifice and God today if we hear your voice Jesus help us to respond to it help us to listen to it help us to walk in your ways and to be as your children who's immediately responding as Samuel did God we say here we are Jesus right now at every truth that we learn God be imprinted in our hearts so that we will never ever drift away from it but God we will always live as the partakers of the Creator calling the one who's called we will always remember our word in you and God we will keep glorifying you on this life I give all my classmates in your hands I bless them all the name of Jesus give pastor Nancy in your hands thank you for everything that she's teaching to us God thank you God for filling her with complete health in upcoming days and Jesus name and pray amen amen thank you Jeffina thank you everyone God bless you and please do join us online for the Christian Leaders Conference which is starting tomorrow so really look forward to having you all on the live stream so those who can connect we will we've already posted details on the main Audi we'll probably post it on the class courses as well but please join us okay so there'll be no classes from tomorrow through the week we'll get back into the regular classes from next Monday okay thank you bye for now God bless uh thank you so much ma oh yeah uh thank you so much ma