July 14, 2021 — A Study on the Book of Hebrews

“Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16

“Though now ascended up on high, He bends on earth a brother’s eye; Partaker of the human name, He knows the frailty of our frame. Our fellow-suff’rer yet retains, A fellow-feeling of our pains; And still remembers in the skies, His tears, his agonies, and cries.

In ev’ry pang that tends the heart, The Man of sorrows had a part; He sympathizes with our grief, And to the suff’rer sends relief.” (Scottish Psalter)

Those are the words from a Scottish Psalter.

To sympathize is to have a common feeling — to be able to feel what another feels; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another. We sympathize with our friends who are in distress; we feel some pain when we see them pained, or when we are informed of their distresses, even at a distance — even if we are disconnected by space and time. This is what Jesus is able to do for you and me — to experience pain jointly with us. The exalted High Priest suffers together with the weaknesses of the those who are being tested and brings active help (again I refer you to 1 Corinthians 10:13). There is power in the human ability to sympathize — for it suggests the ability, the power to enter into another’s emotional experiences. When we have this ability to feel what others are feeling, then we can respond to their need with a “knowing”.

People who have true “sympathy” generally do not say, “I know how you feel.” Because since they know how you feel, they also know how unhelpful it is to hear someone say, “I know how you feel.” True sympathy is a fairly quiet, time-intensive, presence-intensive way of being. True sympathy is the ministry of “presence” — the ability to be with someone, and not necessarily to say anything — just to be with them — reminding them that no one needs to go through any suffering alone — and reminding them that Jesus comes to us in each person who chooses to be present with us at just the right times.

Pastor Dave

July 13, 2021 — A Study on the Book of Hebrews

“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” Hebrews 4:8-13

“Word of God means something said and describes a communication whereby the mind finds expression in words…the Greek understanding of lógos is somewhat…complex. To secular and philosophical Greek writers, logos did not mean merely the name of an object but was an expression of the thought behind that object’s name.

Lógos is a word uttered by the human voice which embodies an underlying concept or idea. When one has spoken the sum total of their thoughts concerning something, they have given to their hearer a total concept of that thing. Thus the word lógos conveys the idea of “a total concept” of anything. Lógos means the word or outward form by which the inward thought is expressed and made known. In other words…logos is used of the living, spoken word, the word not in its outward form, but with reference to the thought connected with the form,… in short, not the word of language, but of conversation, of discourse; not the word as a part of speech, but the word as part of what is uttered.

So what is the writer referring to by the word of God? In the present context, Hebrews 3-4, the author has been emphasizing that it is urgent that his readers enter God’s “rest” (“today”). He emphasizes that the way in which one enters His rest is by faith, faith that obeys and perseveres and holds fast until the end (holding fast doesn’t save anyone – but it does show that such a person is saved for otherwise they would not be able to hold fast solely by their efforts). The immediate context indicates that some of the readers were in danger of seeming to fall short of entering God’s rest and even falling back into Judaism. It is in this background that he warns the readers that the “word of God” they have just heard is alive and can pierce right down into the innermost part of the heart to see if their belief is real or not. (Commentary on Hebrews 4, Precept Austin, October 2, 2017)

What else can I say but that the “Word of G-d” is something not to be trifled with. The “Word of G-d” is living and active — that is why the Gospel writer John referred to Jesus as the “Logos”. “In the beginning was the word….” — who was with G-d and who is G-d. We read the word of G-d when we read the Bible, and we take the word of G-d into us when we consume the bread and wine of communion. The word of G-d is active, it is living, it is able to pierce our hearts, our minds, and our souls. But for it to have that effect, we need to be exposed to the word. We need to hear the word, speak the word, eat and drink the word, and live into the very essence of the true meaning of the “Word of G-d”.

If you are having trouble with understanding the “Word of G-d”, then come and join us at one of our bible studies — or find a bible study that fits your schedule and your comfort level. You do not need to have any “pre-requisite” knowledge about the word, just a hunger for understanding and knowledge.

Pastor Dave