The Epistle to the Hebrews part CXXXIX

John 4:7-8
"There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat,)"

I call this a unique situation in Christ’s earthly ministry. Why did He send the disciples away? He knew that this woman was coming and He knew that the Twelve would have a big flap about Him having even one word of conversation with a woman from Samaria. And remember they were what we'd call a half breed, because they were according to 2 Kings 17:24-41 a mixture of races, with a blinded of the God of Israel and the pagan gods, if you will pardon the colloquialism. So He gets rid of the Twelve because He knows this woman is coming. So for the woman of Samaria, what was it? A divine appointment! She didn’t know it but Jesus did. Alright so here she comes to her divine appointment.


John 4:9-10
"Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."

If you are working out in a hot summer sun, whether in your garden or mowing your lawn, or whether it’s myself out in the pasture land that we have for a front yard. And somebody comes along with a drink of ice-cold water, what are you going to do? Sip it to see if it’s good? No sir! Boy you’re going to guzzle it. Why? Because you’re going to take it and satisfy the needs of your body. And that’s the way true believers are, they believe it with all their heart, and satisfy their need for salvation, after their redemption as it comes naturally, rather than just sip it and go through the motions.

To continue on with our study in Hebrews. We’re going to be searching the Scriptures, and be comparing Scripture with Scripture. So we’ll begin again in chapter 6, and verse 4.

But first, for a little bit of introductory comment, we started Hebrews chapter 6 with a statement sort of like this, "I feel like I’m bungling into an area that even angels fear to tread because this chapter 6 of Hebrews has probably precipitated more questions than any other portion of Scripture. It is a portion of Scripture, that has been totally, totally twisted all out of shape. It has caused a lot of people to have fear that shouldn’t. On the other hand, we don’t take away the fact that it is a warning to people who may be taking these things lightly." Remember, we're warned not to take these God's Word lightly. These things are serious business because we’re dealing with Eternity and we’re dealing with the Living God, as Hebrews puts it. We're dealing with the New Covenant (that was veiled or alluded to in the Old Testament, Genesis through Acts chapter eleven)which was paid for in the Blood of Christ Jesus and the power with the related Authority He carries as our High Priest-King over his house.

You’ll remember that back up there in chapter 5, Paul was lamenting the fact that these Hebrews were still unable to teach others, as they were still on the milk bottle. They were still even like the Corinthian believers, who were carnal. So the problem with these believers was that they had never matured or moved on, Paul in one place used the word slothful, we'd say backslidden, standing still and becoming an apostasy. This was the third warning of five found in this Epistle of Hebrews of which we must take notice. And so, as we come into chapter 6 then, that first word "Therefore," is in response to that. That the admonition to those Hebrews is to move on, don’t stay back there in Christ’s earthly ministry.

Again, I’m going to qualify. I’m going to keep repeating that the Epistle of Hebrews is indeed written first and foremost to Hebrews but don’t count the Epistle out as being superfluous and of no importance to us. It’s just like the Old Testament and I treat it more or less in that same vein. We don’t throw the Old Testament away because it was written for the Hebrew nor do we cast off the Epistle of Hebrews because it’s addressed to the Hebrew, but on the other hand, to really get an understanding of what Paul is saying here, we have to realize that it is written to Hebrews. But as Paul writes to Hebrews, we as Gentiles can learn so much! In fact I’ve stressed it over and over that Paul always writes his letters to believers. Paul never addresses one word to the unsaved world, but, what’s the end result? It reaches to the unsaved world.

Alright, so as we look at these verses now, keep those things in mind. It’s written primarily to Jewish believers who have come out of Christ’s earthly ministry. And they still are not able to comprehend Paul’s Gospel and so I think what the Apostle is trying to do is show those people that his Gospel is not something totally foreign but that it came up through Judaism and the Jewish people. As they were to be God's messengers to the world as what? Priest's. Remember also what we said about Paul's having been taught under Gamaliel (this name means: God has rewarded)a teacher of law and therefore Paul uses a lawyers approach to his arguments of persuasion. Which if your not familiar with we'll misunderstand these scriptures and yes even his Epistles all together. Not to mention the persuasion of the Holy Spirit and His design of hiding their meaning from the understanding of the lost or carnal minded person.

So we’ll just jump right in at verse 4. Remember, Paul has stated up in verses 1 and 2 that they were to "leave the words of Christ." In other words, His earthly ministry and progress on. And I made the illustration. It’s much like when the Scripture tells the young man and his bride to do what with their parents? Leave them. Leave father and mother and cling to your wife. And I made the analogy that it doesn’t mean that they forsake them. That doesn’t mean that they say, "So long, Mom I’ll never see you again, because now I’ve got a bride." No. It only means that you cut the apron strings and that young couple now move on in their new life and they begin to take on responsibilities that they never had while they were back home with their parents. Because they're to meld together and become as one.

And it’s the same way spiritually. We have to keep moving on. We don’t stay back there in the elementary things - God wants us to get into the deep things of Scripture, because that’s when it gets exciting. But see, most Sunday School material is elementary because they try to direct everything to the person who knows nothing, and that’s what it really amounts to. They’re just constantly rehashing things that are at the level of the person who knows almost nothing. Well, that isn’t what God wants. He wants us to keep increasing in our knowledge of Him. That is what Paul is saying back there in chapter five with his warnings found there. Now finally I think we’re ready for verse 4.