Scripture referenced 21 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 34:8 opening call to worship, taste and see that the Lord is good
8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
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Keep this verse
Hebrews 13:15
prayer before sermon, continual sacrifice of praise proclaiming allegiance to God's name
15 Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.
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Hebrews 1:1-4
the exordium, God speaking in His Son who is radiance of His glory and exact representation of His nature
1 God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
4 having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they have.
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Psalm 2:7
quoted to show God never said to any angel, you are my son today I have begotten you
7 I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
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2 Samuel 7
I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to me, appropriated toward Messiah
1 When the king lived in his house, and Yahweh had given him rest from all his enemies all around,
2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains.”
3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart; for Yahweh is with you.”
4 That same night, Yahweh’s word came to Nathan, saying,
5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Yahweh says, “Should you build me a house for me to dwell in?
6 For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle.
7 In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I say a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’
8 Now therefore tell my servant David this, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people, over Israel.
9 I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.
10 I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not afflict them any more, as at the first,
11 and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover Yahweh tells you that Yahweh will make you a house.
12 When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;
15 but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.
16 Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.”’”
17 Nathan spoke to David all these words, and according to all this vision.
18 Then David the king went in, and sat before Yahweh; and he said, “Who am I, Lord Yahweh, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far?
19 This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord Yahweh; but you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come; and this among men, Lord Yahweh!
20 What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Lord Yahweh.
21 For your word’s sake, and according to your own heart, you have worked all this greatness, to make your servant know it.
22 Therefore you are great, Yahweh God. For there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23 What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed to yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
24 You established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God.
25 Now, Yahweh God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, confirm it forever, and do as you have spoken.
26 Let your name be magnified forever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David will be established before you.’
27 For you, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to you.
28 “Now, O Lord Yahweh, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
29 Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Lord Yahweh, have spoken it. Let the house of your servant be blessed forever with your blessing.”
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Psalm 97
let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, worship him all you gods
1 Yahweh reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of islands be glad!
2 Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory.
7 Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!
8 Zion heard and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of your judgments, Yahweh.
9 For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
10 You who love Yahweh, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name.
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Psalm 104:4
he makes the winds his messengers, flaming fire his ministers, about angels serving God
4 He makes his messengers winds; his servants flames of fire.
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Psalm 45:7
you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God has anointed you with oil of joy
7 You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
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Isaiah 61:1-3
spirit of the Lord is upon me, anointed to bring good news, connected to Jesus as the anointed one
1 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.
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Luke 4
Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in Nazareth and declares today this scripture is fulfilled
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”
5 The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want.
7 If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered him, “Get behind me Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”
9 He led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here,
10 for it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you;’
11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’”
12 Jesus answering, said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
13 When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another time.
14 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area.
15 He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
17 The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed,
19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
20 He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this parable, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’”
24 He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
25 But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land.
26 Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.”
28 They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things.
29 They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.
30 But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.
31 He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath day,
32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice,
34 saying, “Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!”
35 Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” When the demon had thrown him down in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no harm.
36 Amazement came on all, and they spoke together, one with another, saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”
37 News about him went out into every place of the surrounding region.
38 He rose up from the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him for her.
39 He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her. Immediately she rose up and served them.
40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41 Demons also came out of many, crying out, and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Rebuking them, he didn’t allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
42 When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place, and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn’t go away from them.
43 But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of God’s Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.”
44 He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
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Psalm 102:25-27
you founded the earth, heavens are work of your hands, they perish but you remain the same
25 Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.
27 But you are the same. Your years will have no end.
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Isaiah 51
sky will vanish like smoke, earth wear out like garment, but my salvation will be forever
1 “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.
2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.
3 For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 “Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation: for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment; and its inhabitants will die in the same way: but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.
7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law: Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?
10 Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
11 Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass?
13 Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile will speedily be freed; and he will not die and go down into the pit, and his bread will not fail.
15 For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
16 I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
17 Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.
19 These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of the Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more:
23 and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
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Psalm 110:1
sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool, applied to Jesus
1 Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”
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Hebrews 1:14
angels are ministering spirits sent to render service for those who inherit salvation
14 Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
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Psalm 103:20-22
bless the Lord you his angels mighty in strength who perform his word and do his will
20 Praise Yahweh, you angels of his, who are mighty in strength, who fulfill his word, obeying the voice of his word.
21 Praise Yahweh, all you armies of his, you servants of his, who do his pleasure.
22 Praise Yahweh, all you works of his, in all places of his dominion. Praise Yahweh, my soul!
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Hebrews 2:1-3
for this reason pay closer attention to what we have heard so we do not drift away, warning not to neglect so great a salvation
1 Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense;
3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard;
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Deuteronomy 33:2
the Lord came from Sinai amid ten thousand holy ones, read as angels surrounding the giving of the law
2 He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
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Galatians 3
the law was ordained through angels by a mediator until the seed would come
1 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain?
5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you, and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
6 Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”
7 Know therefore that those who are of faith, the same are children of Abraham.
8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”
9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”
12 The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brothers, speaking of human terms, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void, or adds to it.
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants”, as of many, but as of one, “To your offspring”, which is Christ.
17 Now I say this: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect.
18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.
19 Then why is there the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator is not between one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law.
22 But the Scriptures imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26 For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.
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Acts 7
Stephen preaching as he is stoned, you received the law as ordained by angels yet did not keep it
1 The high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.
5 He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.
6 God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
7 ‘I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.’
8 He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him,
10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time.
13 On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s race was revealed to Pharaoh.
14 Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.
15 Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,
16 and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.
17 “But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
18 until there arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph.
19 The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive.
20 At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house.
21 When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.
22 Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.
23 But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
24 Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian.
25 He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.
26 “The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’
27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’
29 Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
30 “When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him,
32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses trembled, and dared not look.
33 The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’
35 “This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36 This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’
38 This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living revelations to give to us,
39 to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,
40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’
41 They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
42 But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen;
45 which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David,
46 who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him a house.
48 However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with…
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Romans 6:23
the wages of sin is death, cited as the just penalty every transgression receives
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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James 2
if we err in even one point of the law we have broken the whole law
1 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.
2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in;
3 and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, “Sit here in a good place”; and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”;
4 haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?
7 Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
8 However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.
9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom.
13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
15 And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,
16 and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”; and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
18 Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
19 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith.
25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message came from Hebrews 1:4 through 2:3, with the pastor walking through the author's extended argument that Jesus is greater than the angels. The central claim is the one that runs through the whole book of Hebrews: Jesus is better than everything else, so do not turn away from Him. The warning at the end of the passage, "how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation," gave the sermon its edge.
What was said
the pastor opened by reviewing the exordium from last week, Hebrews 1:1-4, which introduced the idea that God's final and authoritative word has come through His Son. The exordium's center point, that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of His nature, and the one who upholds all things by the word of His power, is also the center point of the whole book. Everything that follows in chapters one and two is meant to support it.
The question of angels may seem strange to a modern reader, but the pastor explained that the people this letter was written to had developed a heavy theology around angels as the ones who delivered the law at Sinai. That reading had grown out of hand, and the author of Hebrews moves to correct it by hitting passage after passage from the Old Testament that these readers already trusted and held dear.
The correction works by contrast. God never said to any angel, "You are my son, today I have begotten you." He never told an angel to sit at His right hand. He never described an angel as the one whose throne is forever and ever. Each of those things was said about Jesus, drawn from Psalms and from 2 Samuel, and the pastor noted that when those Psalm texts started playing in the heads of readers steeped in the Hebrew scriptures, they would have immediately recognized Messianic language.
Angels, the author concludes, are ministering spirits sent out to serve those who will inherit salvation. They are created beings who do God's will without argument. The pastor connected this to a broader principle: the message is what matters, not the messenger. Whether the gospel reaches someone through a friend, through Scripture, through a dream, or through a preacher, something is carrying it forward, and keeping that in proper perspective is the point of the whole argument.
With that established, the warning of Hebrews 2:1-3 lands with its full weight. If the word delivered through angels was unalterable, and every transgression against it received a just penalty, then drifting away from what has now been spoken through the Son is far more serious. The pastor drew on John Piper's observation that there is no neutral gear in the Christian life. Stop paying attention, stop praying, stop gathering with other believers, and you do not stay where you were. You drift.
The first of Hebrews' several warnings closes the passage: "How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" The pastor pointed out that James says breaking the law at even one point means the whole law is broken, and no stack of good deeds will balance that out. Everyone will be either justly condemned or mercifully forgiven. The author of Hebrews is urging people who have already started walking with Jesus not to turn back under the pressure of persecution, because what they would be turning away from is the final word of God Himself.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor described the central message of Hebrews as 'Jesus is better than everything else, don't turn away from him.' What in your own life has tempted you to drift away from that focus, and what brought you back?
- The sermon described a theology of angels that had gotten out of hand among the original readers of Hebrews, and said the author was trying to correct their perspective. Are there things Christians today give too much attention to that can pull focus away from Jesus himself?
and 3 more questions in the guide
