Knowable Word - Bible study help

Why Obadiah is Important for the Church

September 22, 2021 By Peter Krol

James Street wrote a marvelous piece overviewing the brief prophecy of Obadiah and explaining why it is important for us to continue studying and teaching today. He explains the historical context (without which the book will be terribly confusing) before walking through the book under three chief questions:

How far will God’s love go? – 1-9
How long will God’s love last? – 10-16
How good will God’s love get? – 17-21

This book makes quite a contribution to our understanding of God’s love for his people, and is well worth your time. As is Street’s helpful analysis.

Check it out!

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Sample Sermon on Acts 27

September 17, 2021 By Peter Krol

A few weeks ago, I described the process by which I came to a richer understanding of the structure and main point of Paul’s shipwreck narrative in Acts 27, thanks to the help of my colleague Tom Hallman. Well, Tom just preached his sermon on that text this past Sunday, and I think he knocked it out of the park. Some of you might be interested in seeing how he did it.

Here is a link to the audio of the sermon. (We don’t record video for sermons.) Sadly, the sermon’s introduction was lost, so the recording begins with the reading of the first portion of the text. But the sermon is still worth your time, if you’re so inclined to see how this opaque text can be taught compellingly using the essential tools of OIA study.

As you listen, you’ll want to make sure to have a map handy so you can visualize the narrated events. Here is a free one for your convenience.

Photo credit: Sweet Publishing / FreeBibleimages.org, Creative Commons

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How to Read Genesis 1-3

September 15, 2021 By Peter Krol

I have benefitted much from the scholarship of Vern Poythress over the years. And in this article, he provides an excellent overview of the key issues that shape the way we ought to read the Bible’s opening chapters.

In my Wednesday posts, I usually link to articles much shorter than this one. But despite its length, Poythress’s article is effectively aimed at non-scholars in plain language. He addresses matters such as who God is, who wrote the book of Genesis, what genre Genesis 1-3 is, and how Genesis 1-3 compares with other ancient literature. Here is the abstract, summarizing the entire piece.

ABSTRACT: The beginning of the book of Genesis is not, as some claim, a mythical or poetic account of creation. It is historical narrative, telling the same story that unfolds in the patriarchs, the exodus, and the establishment of Israel. And, being from God, it speaks truly. Modern readers may not learn everything they would like to know about creation from Genesis 1–3, but they will find everything they most need to know. They also will find an account of creation unlike anything outside the Bible. Compared to the creation myths of Israel’s neighbors, Genesis stands majestically alone.

If that piques your interest, this piece is well worth a good look. Check it out!

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Clean Out the Application Cobwebs

September 13, 2021 By Ryan Higginbottom

Heiko Stein (2016), public domain

There are two types of extra-dirty places in my house: those I actively resist cleaning and those I don’t think about at all.

My shower is dirty because I dislike cleaning it. Though it takes only ten minutes—and it isn’t even that difficult—I build the task up in my head to be impossibly long and tedious. I’d rather clean any other part of the bathroom.

The area behind the washing machine, on the other hand, is dirty because I never consider cleaning it. Unless there’s a problem, I don’t look back there at all.

I suspect these types of neglect are present in our Bible studies too, mostly when it comes to application. Whether we actively resist or regularly overlook an area of application, we need to identify and fix the problem.

Applying the Bible

After observing the text of the Bible, we interpret what we find. We try to identify the author’s main point in the passage.

Then we turn to application. This is where we ask the question, so what? What implications does this truth have for God’s people?

While there may be a handful of accurate, biblical interpretations to a text, applications run in the millions. But there are some ways to organize our efforts.

Application can take shape in two directions: inward and outward. Inward application is pointed toward ourselves, and outward application involves influencing others.

Application can also happen in three spheres: head, heart, and hands. Head application involves what we think and believe, heart application involves our character, and hands application involves what we do.

This makes six combinations to consider every time you study the Bible. (I’m not suggesting you must hit all six areas with every study!)

Diagnosing and Treating the Problem

Different passages lend themselves to different types of application. Not every main point is easily applied in every sphere or each direction. And different people are drawn toward different application emphases.

But over time, it’s possible to get into a rut. Or to consistently neglect one or more areas of application. We need to find these dusty corners and sweep out the cobwebs.

For some people, applying the Bible outward is easy, but making specific changes to their own life is a challenge. Other people may think of head and hands applications quickly, but they struggle to make heart changes.

The best way to diagnose an area of application neglect is to pay attention. Take notes after personal and small group Bible studies. What types of application do you hit most frequently? Which ones are harder for you? Which ones don’t show up at all? Using the two-by-three grid on this worksheet may be helpful.

Like individuals, small groups tend to have areas of application inattention. Have an honest talk with your group and work to identify those application topics you consistently overlook.

Once you’ve identified your weak areas of application, the treatment becomes obvious if not easy: Work on those areas! Pick a neglected box on the application worksheet and don’t let go.

Two Tools for the Task

A common vocabulary with your friends can be useful as you tackle your application weaknesses. There’s nothing sacred about the words we use here at Knowable Word (inward, outward, head, heart, hands), so if you find something else more helpful, go with it! The general ideas will likely be similar.

And finally, as you target this individual or group deficiency, don’t forget to pray! Our neglect is often the fruit of our spiritual blindness or apathy, and we need power from God for spiritual growth. Application always involves a battle of the Spirit and the flesh, and the fighting is more intense when we don’t consistently train for the conflict. But nothing is impossible with God, and he leads us into repentance, joy, and obedience with his strength.

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5 Reasons to Read Your Bible Beyond Practical Application

September 10, 2021 By Peter Krol

I believe in practical application. Here are more than ten biblical reasons why you should do it. But the dangers are legion if you come to your Bible reading with nothing but practical application on your mind. You might rush—or even worse, skip!—your observation or interpretation for the sake of that practical nugget. Your application might come unmoored from the text and take you in exactly the wrong direction. You might fall into the well-worn path of failing to identify any applications beyond the Big Three.

And there is a major opportunity cost involved. Treat personal application as the only consistent outcome for your Bible reading, and you may simply miss out on these other benefits the Lord wishes for you.

1. Storing up now for the coming winter

A regular habit of Bible reading is worth maintaining, even when no urgent or timely application comes readily to mind, because you are depositing divine truth in the storehouses of your soul from which you can later make withdrawals. “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps 119:11). “My son, keep your father’s commandments … bind them on your heart always … When you walk, they will lead you … For the commandment is a lamp … to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress” (Prov 6:20-24).

We ought to consider the ant and be wise (Prov 6:6-11, 30:24-25), not only with respect to our work ethic but also with respect to our truth ethic. It is foolish to abstain from Bible reading because it’s not practical enough for today. When the time of temptation arrives, you will have an empty storehouse—an empty heart—with no stockpile of resources available to supply your resistance.

2. Receiving comfort amid sorrow

It is true that suffering people need time and space to process. Yet may it never be that our “time and space” isolate us from the Lord, when they ought to bind us more tightly to him. The laments of the Bible are wonderful for giving us words when we don’t know what to say, and feelings when we don’t know what to feel. The Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Rom 8:26) is the same Spirit who inspired the words of the prophets and apostles to give expression to such groanings (1 Pet 1:10-12).

“My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” (Ps 119:28). Such strengthening does not typically result in an item for the to-do list or a practical application to go on the calendar. These words are shaping us to know where and when to find true solace.

3. Motivating future obedience

Reading your Bible saturates your mind and heart in the love of God for you, which will motivate you to even greater obedience in the future. Though you may not get a nugget of practical application right now, the good news will inflame your desire for such obedience in perpetuity.

“Let your steadfast love come to me, O Yahweh, your salvation according to your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me … And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth … I will keep your law continually, forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts” (Ps 119:41-45).

4. Learning to both love and hate the right things

Sometimes Bible reading does not produce immediate behavioral change, but instead trains our senses to distinguish good from evil, to discern right from wrong. And it trains not only our mind’s acuity but also our very affections, that we might love what is good and hate that which is evil. “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that Yahweh, the God of armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 5:15).

Our Bible reading shapes our hearts in immeasurable and incremental ways, with respect not only to ourselves but also to those around us. “Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning” (Ps 119:53-54).

5. Spending time with the Beloved

A marriage relationship is not merely a socioeconomic contract wherein two parties engage in mutually beneficial transactions and improve their financial benefits. Yes, it is at least that, but more often than not, a relationship characterized by love involves simply spending time together. There is a delight to be had from communing together, living life together, sharing experiences, and growing old together as lovers and companions. So, too, in this marriage between the Lord Jesus and his Bride. We meet together corporately to worship the father through him. And we read the Bible that we might simply know him and enjoy his sweet companionship.

To ensure we don’t wander off with a “Jesus” of our own invention, our communion with Christ must involve a communion in his word. God is revealed most clearly in his word, so knowing God must involve knowing his word. “Yahweh is my portion; I promise to keep your words … The earth, O Yahweh, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!” (Ps 119:57, 64). “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Conclusion

Whoever desires practical application to result from Bible reading desires a noble thing. But it’s not the only thing. Please keep reading your Bible, even when you can’t see immediate, outward life change by the end of the day. I assure you: Though you may not see quick and immediate change in yourself, others will certainly perceive the gradual and lasting change that transpires in you as the seasons come and go. As you spend time with your Beloved, you can’t help but become more like him.

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7 Characteristics of Good Bible Teachers

September 8, 2021 By Peter Krol

Doug Eaton has a thoughtful piece on “7 Characteristics of Good Bible Teachers.” He presumes good and accurate understanding of the Bible as a prerequisite, and then posits that good teachers will also demonstrate the following characteristics:

A good teacher is concerned about wasting their student’s time.
A good teacher is more concerned with clarity than appearing highbrow.
A good teacher explains why what they are teaching is important.
A good teacher is more concerned with delivering content than face time.
A good teacher has their objectives clearly defined before they begin to speak.
A good teacher has learned the importance of subtraction.
A good teacher will find a weakness in their student’s thinking and ask them questions that will help them grow.

We spend much time at this blog helping you to learn how to get the text right. Eaton’s list is a helpful supplement, enabling us to improve at getting the message of the text across as we teach it.

Check it out!

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What Should We Make of Paul’s Shipwreck Narrative?

September 3, 2021 By Peter Krol

When our church’s team of preachers decided to preach through Acts, I knew chapter 27 would be a doozy (notice how I cleverly ignored this chapter in my interpretive overview of Acts). I have always been confused by this chapter and its role within the book, and though I’m sure compelling sermons have been preached on this text, I have yet to hear one of them. I’m used to hearing otherwise fantastic preachers punt on this chapter, in the name of practicality, to talk about “weathering the storms of our spiritual lives.” So the extraordinarily detailed travelogue of Acts 27 is reduced to a parable and a few minor observations (typically surrounding verses 23-25) seeking to inspire us toward deeper trust in Christ—a wonderful thing to be inspired toward, of course!

Therefore, since I’m in charge of managing our sermon schedule, I made sure to assign Acts 27 to someone else. Pro tip: When you don’t know what to do with a text, require a friend or colleague to deal with it instead. This resulted in one of the most exciting “aha!” moments in my Bible study this year.

A Key Structural Observation

The ~~sucker~~ fortunate fellow to receive the assignment was a good man and marvelous student of the word named Tom Hallman. Tom eagerly set himself to observe the text inside and out, to give him the raw materials for a series of interpretive questions. Our practice is that our team of preachers gives feedback on every sermon before it is preached. We collaborate in two phases: the study of the passage and the delivery of the sermon. So in that first phase, Tom regularly laid before us the fruit of his study for comment and evaluation.

And Tom made a key structural observation that shed tremendous light on the passage for me. In following the narrative’s plot, Tom observed that the main conflict centers on the centurion’s failure to listen to Paul’s counsel in Acts 27:11. This led Tom to recognize a few arcs within the plot:

Acts 27:9-20: Paul speaks, and the centurion pays more attention to others. The result is that all hope of being saved is abandoned.
Acts 27:21-44: Paul speaks, and the Romans start listening to him. The result is that all are brought safely to land.

These observations of the primary narrative tension and its accompanying resolution gave us hope that we could sift through the flood of details to discern the author’s main point in this chapter.

Further Dialogue

As we discussed it further and kept staring at the text to observe it more closely, we eventually realized that there were not two arcs but three. Paul actually makes three sizable speeches (Acts 27:10, 21-26, 33-34). He also speaks in Acts 27:31, but that briefer statement does not have the same appearance of introducing a new scene. It is a response to what’s happening in the moment (Acts 27:30).

So we’ve actually got three main speeches from Paul. Do we correspondingly have a clear resolution with each one, to make three complete arcs? This question drove us back into the text.

And sure enough, there it was. So plain and obvious we couldn’t believe we had missed it or ever believed this passage to be opaque to us.

Acts 27:9-20: Paul speaks, and the centurion pays more attention to others. The result is that all hope of being saved is abandoned.
Acts 27:21-32: Paul speaks, and no-one immediately rejects him. But eventually the soldiers heed him. (The centurion and soldiers both hear Paul’s words in Acts 27:31, but only the soldiers are mentioned as acting on them in Acts 27:32.) There is no immediate “salvation,” but only a sense of “let’s wait and see; we hope this works.”
Acts 27:33-44: Paul speaks, and all are encouraged and choose to eat (Acts 27:36). The result is that the centurion has heard enough, and he now wishes to save Paul (Acts 27:43). “And so it was that all were brought safely to land” (Acts 27:44).

These three arcs showed us that the primary tension revolves around whether the Roman centurion (prominent enough to be named in the text—Acts 27:1,3) will listen to Paul or not. And in particular: Will he listen to Paul with respect to salvation? This salvation goes in two directions: Paul wants to save the centurion—along with everyone else on the ship; the centurion, in the end, wishes to save Paul.

In the first arc, Julius will not listen to Paul, and all hope is lost. In the second arc, the soldiers listen to Paul, and it is as though the centurion is watching and deliberating before rendering judgment on this most unusual prisoner. In the third arc, the centurion fully listens to Paul and doesn’t want him to die.

Conclusions About the Text

I’m not weirded out by this chapter any more. It fits cleanly within the book’s main idea that the world’s salvation cannot be stopped. It also masterfully advances Luke’s primary agenda to petition for Paul’s exoneration before Caesar. “Julius was uncertain at first, and unwilling to listen to Paul. But he has been convinced that this Paul is who he says he is, and he refuses to let anyone execute him. Caesar: Why wouldn’t you do the same?”

And not only that, but Acts 27 also serves Luke’s secondary purpose to lead all of Abraham’s children to salvation through the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “Julius was uncertain at first, and unwilling to listen to Paul. But many have been convinced that this Jesus, whom Paul preaches, is who he says he is. Don’t just stand there watching others listen and find rescue. Noble reader: Why wouldn’t you do the same?”

Conclusions About Our Study Methods

If Luke can have two simultaneous purposes in mind, so can I. While I wanted to help you observe and interpret Acts 27 along with me, I also wanted you to see how I got there. And the events that took place this past week in my dialogues with Tom highlight a few conclusions. First, Bible study needs to be a community project. Second, structure conveys meaning. And third, the most important tool for observing the structure of a narrative episode is plot structure.

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Sometimes We Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Apply Scripture

September 1, 2021 By Peter Krol

Pierce Taylor Hibbs has a really helpful piece entitled “Christian, Here’s When You’re Allowed to Apply Scripture.” In it, he laments the way too many of us too often use the Scripture.

Much of the time, we’re pigeons grabbing bread crumbs of information and entertainment. And that crumb-picking habit carries over into our understanding and application of Scripture. We’re not asking questions of a text, working through context in widening circles, or even using our God-given reason to reach understanding. Instead, we’re crumb-picking. We grab a friend’s complaint here, a Facebook comment there, and a Scripture passage we found through a Google search, and boom: we’ve got an “argument,” an arrow to shoot in conversation. And because we’re quoting Scripture, it appears to be biblical. But let’s be clear: Quoting a Bible verse doesn’t mean you’ve made a biblical argument.

He then proposes that what authorizes someone to make use of the Scripture in application is that they have first done the hard work of observing it in its original context and interpreting it in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He then walks through a 3-step process, showing how to do this difficult work, with the example of an easy-to-misuse verse: “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7).

This article is well worth your time. Check it out!

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What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Lamentations

August 30, 2021 By Ryan Higginbottom

As a book, Lamentations is overlooked and ignored. Bible readers often don’t know what to do with it. It’s short and poetic, but it is found among the major prophets instead of within the wisdom literature. It is full of lament, so inspiration-seeking Christians cannot easily hop between uplifting verses. The book is heavy and sad, filled with the sorrows of the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem.

But this book is a gem. God has given it to us as his inspired word, and if we’re willing, we have much to learn from this volume.

An Extended Lament

The main thing we miss if we bypass Lamentations is an extended look at lament.

Many books of the Bible contain lament—including as many as one third of the Psalms. But Lamentations is the only book which is only lament. When we read this book, we face sorrow and grief from beginning to end.

Most Western Christians are not familiar with lament; it makes us uncomfortable. With Lamentations we are forced to wrestle with lament as a legitimate, biblical form of prayer.

The laments in Lamentations differ from those in many of the Psalms in important ways. The author of Lamentations confesses guilt on behalf of the Israelites (Lam 1:5; 1:8–9; 1:18; 1:22; 4:13–16) and recognizes God’s hand in the destruction of the city and the holy temple (Lam 2:1–10). Even though God’s anger is justified against his people, their sorrowful cry in the midst of a terrible situation is still legitimate.

This book of laments also makes Bible readers grapple with the issue of complaint. Complaining to God cannot be inherently wrong because most of Lamentations is a detailed list of all the ways the people are suffering. Therefore, we must learn to distinguish between godly complaint and ungodly complaint. (It may be helpful to use the term “grumbling” instead of “complaining” to make this distinction.)

Repeated readings of this book also force the reader to learn to live with the tension inherent in lament. Each of the five chapters of Lamentations is a separate prayer of lament, and none of these prayers resolve in a way that is satisfying to the modern ear. Far from being a problem, this feature of lament naturally turns the sorrowful Christian back to God, again and again seeking his face.

Trust in the Midst of Destruction

Lamentations helps us to acquire a taste for biblical lament, but it also gives us a brief glimpse into the moment in history after the fall of Jerusalem. The walls are down, the temple is demolished, and most of the population has been captured; how will the people who remain react?

We read the people confess their sins and the sins of their leaders (Lam 4:13–16). We see them cry out to the Lord in pain, wanting to be seen in their affliction (Lam 1:9,11,20; 2:20; 5:1). And we also witness these believers cling to the promises of God (Lam 3:31–33; 4:22).

A Lesson in Waiting

The most famous verses in Lamentations (Lam 3:22–23) have been quoted and misquoted at length, and they have inspired a wonderful hymn. But the middle section of the middle chapter of Lamentations is worthy of extended reflection.

In this passage we learn the importance of looking to God’s character—not our circumstances—for hope. We see that waiting on the Lord is not something we may need to do occasionally, but rather it is a baked-in part of following Yahweh (Lam 3:25–33).

Pointing to Christ

Reading Lamentations is a healthy challenge for those who believe that all the Scriptures speak of Jesus (Luke 24:44). How could a book so sad and filled with devastation speak of the Savior?

The judgments described in Lamentations are devastating and, in some cases, graphic. The people have been justly visited by God’s wrath, through the vehicle of the Babylonians, because they turned away from him.

In Lamentations we have a detailed picture of the wages of sin. We have a faint sense of what we deserve when we stand before holy God. And, therefore, we also glimpse a shadow of the judgment Jesus suffered for his people when he took their sins upon himself (1 Peter 2:24).

Lamentations is worthy of our attention. If, as the Church, we soaked in this book more regularly, we would develop greater sympathy for others, firmer trust in God’s promises, and a deeper understanding of God’s character and what it means to seek him.

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Hebrews: God has Spoken by his Son Whose Work is Finished

August 27, 2021 By Peter Krol

Hebrews appears to have been a sermon that was transcribed and then circulated in letter form. This theory explains not only the strange opening—with no greeting or identification of the sender—but also the regular alternation between exposition and application, and the label “word of exhortation” used in the appended postscript (Heb 13:22, phrase also occurs in Acts 13:15). Depending on your pace, you can read the whole book out loud in 45 to 60 minutes, which is a reasonable duration for a sermon. Reading the book with a view toward its live, public delivery helps us to grasp its organization and intentions.

Literary Markers

While it’s not difficult to recognize large cohesive blocks within Hebrews, it is notoriously difficult to nail down the precise beginnings and endings of the sections. I believe this is because of the nature of spoken communication. When a discourse is meant more for the ear than the eye, the transitions will naturally be more audible than visible. They won’t appear in sharp pronouncements, but will normally sound quite transitional. That makes it difficult to know whether those transitional statements belong with the previous section or the following section, as they serve as bridges between both.*

To give a few examples:

Heb 1:4 transitions from the prologue by introducing the first topic of Jesus’ more excellent name making him superior to angels. But it is only the final clause in the run-on sentence that begins at Heb 1:1, so Heb 1:1-4 naturally gets put together when we outline the book.
Heb 2:17-18 both concludes the previous section (“therefore”) and introduces the idea the Jesus has become a merciful and faithful high priest, which becomes the topic of the next section.
Heb 5:9-10 again concludes the previous section, while simultaneously introducing the next topic, broken into three parts: Jesus is perfect, the source of eternal salvation, and a Melchizedekan high priest.

I’ll explain the sermon’s flow of thought further in the walkthrough below, but the remaining transitional statements are found in Heb 10:36-39 and Heb 12:12-13. When the book is read out loud, it is easier to hear how those transitional statements are woven right into the conclusion of the previous section, while also introducing new ideas that get explained further in the following section.

Heb 13:20-21 then concludes the sermon, and Heb 13:22-25 serves as a written note to accompany the transcription.

Thesis

Like any good public lecture, the main thesis comes right at the beginning (Heb 1:1-4). Stripping all the dependent clauses away yields the following as the sentence’s essential grammar: “…God has spoken to us by his Son…who…sat down.” There have been many ways God has spoken before now. But now he has spoken by his radiant, appointed, powerful, and purifying Son. And that Son has now sat down at God’s right hand to rule, as the rest of his work is done. God has spoken. Through this Son. Whose first phase of work is now complete.

That is the big idea of this sermon. There are many reasons to listen to this Son. There are many competing voices that may tempt you to listen to them. But his work is finished in a way that the work of the other voices can never be. Implicitly: Do not reject him who is speaking to you.

Walkthrough

The argument of this sermon is both extraordinary and extraordinarily complex, so I wish to do it justice but will only have the space to use the broadest of strokes. The main thing we ought to see (or hear, if you can read it aloud) is how the transitional statements introduce the main topics. The following exposition then takes up those topics, nearly every time, in reverse order.

Having stated the thesis (that God has spoken to us by his Son who sat down), the preacher’s first explanatory point is that Jesus has become superior to the angels because he’s inherited a more excellent name. In this first point, he does us the kindness of taking his two matters in order. First, Jesus is superior to the angels (Heb 1:5-14). Second, his name is more excellent than theirs (Heb 2:5-18). Between those two expositions is the first point of application: Pay closer attention (Heb 2:1-4)!

The next transitional statement (Heb 2:17-18) takes things in a new direction: Jesus had to become a merciful and faithful high priest. Now the preacher begins his pattern of addressing the subpoints in reverse order. First, Jesus is a faithful high priest, greater than Moses and Joshua (Heb 3:1-4:14). Second, Jesus is a merciful high priest, very much like the Aaronic high priests (Heb 4:15-5:10).

Next transition (Heb 5:9-10): Being made perfect, he became a source of eternal salvation, being designated a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Before he can really tackle this material, though, he must offer the second application: You have stopped hearing and doing (Heb 5:11-6:20). But then he explains his ideas in reverse order. First, Jesus’ priesthood is in the order of Melchizedek (Heb 7:1-28); he is a better priest. Second, Jesus’ priesthood brings eternal savation (Heb 8:1-9:28); he offers a better covenant in a better tabernacle. Third, Jesus’ priesthood is perfect (Heb 10:1-18); he offers a better sacrifice. This section closes with the third application: Keep helping one another to both hear and do (Heb 10:19-39, this application was previewed in Heb 3:12-13).

Next transition (Heb 10:36-39): You have need of endurance, and we are of those who have faith. He now goes into great detail showing us what faith looks like (Heb 11:1-40) and calling us to run with endurance as we consider the one who endured on our behalf (Heb 12:1-13).

Transition to sermon’s last main section (Heb 12:12-13), which is all application: Straighten that which has grown crooked or lame. Do this first in your walk with God (Heb 12:14-29). Understand how your vertical perspective affects your horizontal relationships (Heb 13:1-6). Then you can straighten out your walk with other people (Heb 13:7-19).

In the sermon’s conclusion (Heb 13:20-21), the preacher return’s to his opening thesis to drive it home. God has spoken in his Son by raising him from the dead. Because the first phase of his work is finished, he may now equip you with everything good that you may do his will. Those who listen to him will be pleasing in God’s sight.

Finally, a personal note has been appended to the sermon, giving a brief update on Timothy’s status and sending greetings from and for the brethren.

Conclusion

Though the argument of Hebrews may appear to meander at times according to the preacher’s stream of consciousness, the transitional statements, and the repetition of key words from those statements in the following section, do illuminate the path he wishes us to follow. Amid the exquisite detail and theology of this masterpiece, let us pay much closer attention to the one who is speaking, that we might keep helping one another to believe and do his word. For the long haul. Forever.

Interpretive Outline

Thesis: God spoke in a Son who sat down – Heb 1:1-4

The Son is superior to angels on account of his more excellent name – Heb 1:4-2:18
- Transition – Heb 1:4
- Superior to angels – Heb 1:5-14
  - Application: Pay closer attention! – Heb 2:1-4
- More excellent name – Heb 2:5-18
The Son is a merciful and faithful high priest – Heb 2:17-5:10
- Transition – Heb 2:17-18
- Faithful high priest – Heb 3:1-4:14
- Merciful high priest – Heb 4:15-5:10
The perfect, Melchizedekan Son brings eternal salvation – Heb 5:9-10:39
- Transition – Heb 5:9-10
- Application: You have stopped hearing and doing – Heb 5:11-6:20
  - Melchizedekan priesthood – Heb 7:1-28
  - Eternal salvation – Heb 8:1-9:28
  - Perfection – Heb 10:1-18
- Application: Keep helping one another to hear and do – Heb 10:19-39
The Son calls us to endurance and faith – Heb 10:36-12:13
- Transition – Heb 10:36-39
- Faith – Heb 11:1-40
- Endurance – Heb 12:1-13
Application: Straighten your walks with God and with people – Heb 12:12-13:19
1. Transition – Heb 12:12-13
2. Walk with God – Heb 12:14-29
3. Connection between walks with God and with people – Heb 13:1-6
4. Walk with people – Heb 13:7-19

Conclusion: May the one who spoke through his Son now equip you to please him – Heb 13:20-21

Postscript: Bear with this word of exhortation! – Heb 13:22-25

*This insight, and therefore much of my outline of Hebrews, is indebted to the keen observations of Albert Vanhoye in his Structure and Message of the Epistle to the Hebrews (affiliate link).

This post is part of a series of interpretive overviews of the books of the Bible.

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