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Episode 832: In this episode, we read through Hebrews 13, we note the author's passionate exhortations to love one another, show hospitality, and remember those in need. The chapter encapsulates the essence of community and faith, emphasizing that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We reflect on how the author skillfully ties together the Old Testament sacrificial system with the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, encouraging listeners to understand the depth of their faith.
Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.
Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Everybody the Bible Guys man, we appreciate you. That was pretty enthusiastic. Oh yeah, well you know what, Jeff, I'm a bold of enthusiasm. You're nothing if you're not enthusiastics. I am. Yeah, and you know what, pure enthusiasm is gonna get me through this episode. Not Bible knowledge, but pure enthusiasms. We've already established that for both of us. That's right. That's right. Hey, well listen we uh before we dive into the Book of Hebrews. Yes, we are. We are going to do what Desiree calls a hot takes showdown. Now, this is a very quick segment, and this is what she says. She says, stand your ground while debating these topics. No middle Oh, but I'll be honest. She picked she picked two very very bold statements like it's one thing to say so kind of, but she said, definitively. Yeah, so I hadn't even read these. Well, I just read them a second ago. Yeah, and you're right, I don't know if I. Could definitively stand on my grounds on both of these, although I do want to build a case for them. Okay, go ahead, all right, you want me to take So the first one is Taco Bell is the best fast food restaurant out there. Ok. Well, it depends on what she means by the word best. I'm a very literal person, so best means it has to be number one, superior, which means on all different levels. So if I were to be literal, I would. Who's best, Your best or everybody else's best? No, my favorite has to be your fath Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So here's the thing. I think Chick fil a is a much better fast food restaurant. However, I go to Taco Bell ten times more than I do Chick fil Ay because I love it that much. You love Taco Bell. Yeah, but see, I already have this love hate relationship with Taco Bell, which I know my body is not going to thank me the next day, right, I feel sluggish afterwards. I'll get up in the middle of the night, you know, worship the porcelain God. But you love it. I love it, you love it. But then I then I'm also angry about it because they'll bring items and then they'll take them away. They'll just they'll bring them and I'm like, this is the best I am. They're like just kidding and they'll take them away. And I don't understand that philosophy. I just I I it feels to me like even though she said no middle ground, it feels like you are just conquering the middle ground here. I am, which which again because she used the word best. But I think I think the proof is in it. Don't tell me what you think is best, show me what's best. And in your life, you're showing me that Taco Bell is what's best. That's that's my conundrum. Yes, yeah, yeah, the Book of James. It's a biblical principle. Yeah, don't just talk about faith. Faith, Jeff w I right there, I sit at your feet. Well, I'm I'm just trying to enforce the rules. She said no middle ground, and you just spent the whole time in the middle ground. I did, Okay, But I think your. Lifestyle proves Okay, Taco Bell is your favorite. Okay, then yes, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go full all in. Taco Bell is the best one out there. Yeah. I crave it the most. I have it the most. It's my greatest weakness of all the fast food restaurants. And I think when I hit and when they bring back an item that I love, I love it. You love it? So what what what item have they recently brought back that you love? They brought back the Mexican pizza for the umpteenth time. They took away the inchurito. They brought it back. Now they took it away again. Haha, it's gone forever. You're so funny. The chili cheese burrita, the Gordidas are gone, right, I mean all these different things. You're convincing me. There is no middle ground for you. This is I can't go through the Taco Bell menu. What you don't know these things? Well I know them. When you say them, I wouldn't think of it. I still remember the Bell Beefer when I was a kid. Bell Beefer. Yeah, it was actually a hamburger. Yeah, I remember, I remember let cheese. It was essentially a Mexican sloppy Joe what it was. And I'm telling you we love the Bell Beefers, and they're just like just kidding. No more Bell Beefers, no more happiness. Okay, Well I'm going to stand my ground and say this is a ridiculous statement. It's not true. I think that the best fast food restaurant in America is Boy. Now I'm about to waffle on this one. I'm gonna say Shakeshack. Whoa you mean shake shack Okay, at first I thought you were gonna say steak. And shake shake shack y. Yeah, those are those are the best fast food. Smash burgers. I like the crinkly fries, and then I like all their varieties. And I literally don't know another human that would say that is the best fast You know. The guy who founded Shakeshack was a very high end He ran one of the top restaurants in the world when he founded Shakeshak. Really that's a fact. Yeah, wow, Yeah, it's a legit chef. And by the way, I've never once heard a single person say, hey, let's go get some eat real quick. Let's go to Shakeshak. Yeah, because it costs you three arms and two legs. Oh it's expensive, but you drop in there and if you order a single burger, a fry, and a drink, it's gonna cast you twenty bucks. Yeah, that's why. By the way, as opposed to a tackle bell. You could have ordered half the menu twice. Right, exactly, which, by the way, just because this was a little bit quicker of a segment, even though we didn't get to the second question yet. Do you know where the phrase that will cast your arm and a leg came from? No, back when they used to do massive self portraits of important people, right, yeah. Yeah. They would always paint from the chest up, and you often sometimes see like full portraits all the way down where it's like a full body and they would charge you by an arm down to your waist, full legs and it's going to cast your armored leg is because the cost was dependent on how big the suff portrait was. Yeah, I knew that as soon as you start talking about it. I remember reading that before. That's great, man, Yeah, okay, okay, now's the second one. Pizza is way better cold. I'm gonna have to say, no, way, yeah, it is good. There is no debate on this one. No, there's no debate. Yeah, sorry, now, way, she even used way better. That's what I'm saying. What a strong statement. Way better. It's not just better, Jack, I know it is way better. I'm almost embarrassed by the question. If she would have said way better hot, we'd have been like absolutely absolutely, Yeah, tell me why it's not better cold. Because it's better hot. The melty cheese, a little bit of grease, pulling in the in the in the the the pepperonis, yeah yeah, yea. The soft sausage. Oh man, you're getting hung good. Yeah yeah wow. Yeah. So that was a quick one for sure. The garliky flavor stands out a little bit more. Yeah, there's no middle ground on this one either. I like cold pizza. I just don't know. I don't I don't think I know anybody. I'm not sure I've asked this question. Really, Hey, you like a better cold? I do know that almost everybody I know likes cold pizza. Yeah. I like cold pizza. I'll eat it, it's just not better. I just got a pizza stone from my from my grill. Did you build yourself in a wood fire oven? No, it goes inside of my smoker. Oh it's so good. The wait the stone. Yeah, you're gonna make pizza in your grill? Oh, in your smoker? Yeah yeah yeah yeah, because my smoker will go up to six hundred degrees. Wow. And so it's a it's a wood pellette smoker like six degrees and the stone goes in there. We make our dough, we put it in there and make the whole pizza thing. Put it in there. It's like crispy on the bottom. It tastes like and smells like wood fired pizza, because that's what it is. It's inside the smoker. Wow, and it's amazing and your your family loves it. I love it. Yeah, yeah, well you just said I love it. I love it. I like it because it makes a mess. I destroyed the whole kitchen. So my wife's like, are we making pizza again? Because that's when I cook. I get like every pan, every measuring cup. I destroy the kitchen and then it takes us an hour to clean it up. But I like it. Anyways, there you go. So we held our ground on one and then we both took the same position on the other. So it wasn't a debate. You we didn't hold our ground. We're debating with her. That's it. You're wrong, We're right. You know. You know what standing your ground really means. It means attaching your name and your opinion to to to what you say. Right, Yes, that's credit. So it's attaching your name to it. And you know what doesn't have any name attached to it? What the Book of Hebrews. Yeah, you're right, that's true. We don't know who the author is. That's correct. Which, by the way, if you are a person who wants to get to know more about the Bible, you know you can you can sort of take some books of the Bible. You can categorize them, like you know, there's like we said just yesterday, there's my major prophets, minor prophets. We talked about Jeremiah. In the New Testament, there's the Gospels, and then there's the Birth of the Church, and then there's the Prison epistles. You know, Paul wrote those when he was in the prison and all those kind of things. And then there's Hebrews. And Hebrews, I would say, sort of stands on its own in the New Testament, right that one. In Jude I would say, right, well, I would say, Hebrews balances off Romans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in Romans, Paul's explaining the Gospel to gentiles, and he's kind of tough, buttoning up all the loose ends so they understand. In Hebrews, the author of Hebrews is kind of doing the same thing, except. To Jews and committed Jews. Yes, like Jews that would really know their own theology. Yeah, because Hebrews. It's one of the reasons why a lot of people, I'm not sure if it's the majority of people, but I know that there's definitely a lot of people that would say Paul wrote Hebrews. Yeah, do you think Paul wrote Hebrews. I honestly, I'm just I'm exactly where you are. There's parts of the of Hebrews where I read it and I'm like, that sounds like Paul. And then there's parts of it I read it and I'm like, that doesn't sound like Paul. All in the King James version which we grew up reading, right, Paul, when he writes, sometimes a whole chapter will be one great, big, long run on sentence, And in the Book of Hebrews, sometimes that happens, where it's eight, nine, ten, twelve verses, all just one great big run on sentence. I'm like, yeah, this has got to be Paul, right. And then there's other times I read it and it doesn't sound anything like how Paul writes. In Romans, for instance, Yeah, but Paul also is the one who said I've become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some. I think he also was very much, very adaptive to the different thing. He could have written this in pharisee mode, yeah right, So maybe it was the style of the Pharisees. That's the way he used to write his dissertations or whatever it is. And actually, another thing to say about this is that it would make sense that Paul wrote it because a pharisee would understand everything that Paul unpacks about the temple, Jewish customers, the symbolism. He's a full on Hebrew theologian. Yes, that's saying, and Jesus is the messiah we were looking for. Yeah right, that that's what he's doing. And I don't know that we know anybody else in that early Christian history. There have been some people who've questioned if Nicodemus wrote it, Oh wow, right, I had it. He was a pharisee, and the first Christian pharisee we know, first christ Father. So there's there's there's been that question to have something. I keep reaching for it cobweb or something. I don't know, so, so there it could be that. It could be some people think silas because we don't have silas. Thank you. It's oh, there you go, that's it tickling me, yeah, thank you. We're like gorillas now, so uh, some people think maybe silas. Some people have suggested Barnabas. There's no real evidence of that. Yeah. Priscilla specifically is interesting because it's not signed. A woman would not have signed a treatise like this back then, right even into the early twentieth century, women a lot of times wouldn't take credit. They'd write under male pseudonyms and things for credibility. So that's it. I don't believe that that's the case here. And then when I get to this chapter, chapter thirteen, I finally come back and go because I go back and forth in the first twelve chapters it's Paul. No, it's not Paul. It's Paul. No, it's not Paul. But I get the chapter thirteen and I end it with I think it's Paul. Yeah. And it's because he ends this book the same way he ends every book. He writes, Oh, he's got like nine things, he needs a cram it. Don't forget this, don't forget this, don't forget this, for don't forget this. Yeah, and that's kind of what he's doing. So let's just read it and you'll pick up on it. Says, keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers. For some who've done this, I entertained angels without realizing it. We've talked about that many times, right, Remember those in prison. So you see, he just said, keep on loving each other, show hospitality. Remember people in prison. Angels, Yeah, angels. He just cramming stuff in now at this point, at the end, it's like he knows he's done with the book and he wants to finish stuff. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. Give honor to marriage. Where is this come from? Give honor to marriage? Or remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. Don't love money. Now he's talking about money. Don't love money. Be satisfied with what you have, for God has said I will never fail you, I will never abandon you. So we can say with confidence the Lord is my helper, So I will have no fear. What can your people do to me? Now he's talking about leaders. Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. So do not be attracted by strange new ideas. Your strength comes from God's grace, not from rules about food, which don't help those who follow them. Where did the food thing come from? No idea. I don't even remember him talking about food in Hebrews, but he brings it up here, he says. But Paul talks about it in Philippians, right, he talks about in Galatius. He doesn't even mention. He just says, your strength comes from God's grace. No romans from rules about food. Yeah, yeah, he talks about food, and romans he talks about So we have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat under the old system, the right the high priests brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make holy his people holy by means of his own blood. So let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace hebore. For this world is not our permanent home. We are looking forward to a home yet to come. Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that police God. Obey your spiritual leaders who do what they and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow that would certainly not be for your benefit. Pray for us, for our conscience is clear, and we want to live honorably in everything we do. And especially pray that I'll be able to come back to you soon. That feels like Paul. Now, may the Grace of Peace or the God of Peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood. May He equip you with all you need for doing his will. May He produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him, All glory to Him forever and ever. Amen. That feels like Paul. I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to pay attention to what I've written in this brief exhortation. That feels like Paul. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released from jail. That really sounds like Paul. And that's the only time is mentioned that Timothy ever went to jail. By the way, if he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you. Greet all your leaders and all the believers there. The believers from Italy send you their greetings. That sounds like Paul. Make God's grace be with you all. So it doesn't it that he's just He talks about marriage, he talks about money, he talks about leaders, he talks about he talks about theology, Jesus dying outside the city. He talks about everything in this last ten Yeah. Yeah, food, the law, yeah, be kind to people and yeah yeah, angels yeah angels yeah. So yeah, you're right. He does that often at the end of chapters. He just sort of at the end of the books, it's almost like, hey, uh now mom and dad are going to be gone. Listen to the babysitter and make sure that you're really good. Well, it's like it's like, okay, now, don't forget, don't forget, listen, you know, make your bed, go to bed on time, brush your teeth, right, it's all those things. And so Paul is like he's sort of saying that. He's saying like, hey, I'll come I'll come back soon, just like the babysittering, Yeah, I'm coming back back soon, but don't forget. In the meantime, do these twelve things right. And it's like and it's no fighting, right, don't jump on the bed, you know. So anyways, I think it feels very much like Paul Paul's writing here, and it's one of the reasons why I love the chapter so much is because he genuinely loves the people he's writing to. This isn't just some kind of theological treatise where he's trying to get a grade or get a degree. This is listen. He starts off talking to dear brothers and sisters. He's ending talking to dear brothers and sisters. He's saying, listen, let me use my expertise. So, whether this is Paul or not, whoever's writing it has a love for the people he's talking to. He knows them and their culture very deeply. He knows their belief system very well, and he's able to connect everything they believe to Jesus. Right, let me start at the beginning of the Bible, get to the end of the Bible. Everything points to Jesus. I'm just telling you, if you knew Jesus like I know Jesus, everything would change. And I've talked about that before. I've had different people that you know, working around the world, talking to people who were really skeptical of me being in their village or me being in their town. And I had one guy who was a leader of a pretty significant terrorist organization who didn't like that I was coming into his village and I admitted to him I'm a Christian and he didn't like that. And I said, but you know, I believe Jesus loves Christians and Jews. But I said, I also believes he loves Palestinians and Egyptians and he loves you, and he goes, I think that too. I said, it's fantastic, and he goes, well, then why are you here? He said, are you trying to make us all become Christians? And I felt like that was a challenge. Yeah, And so I said, my goal is not to get you to leave your building with a minaret and come to my building with a cross and a steeple, and he raises eyebrows. I said, my goal is I just wish you could know Jesus like I know Jesus, because Jesus changed everything for me, and he totally like it diffused everything because he's thinking, this is a battle of religions, right, and it said, I'm just like, I just wish you knew Jesus like I know Jesus. And that's how I feel. Sometimes the author is battling the Hebrew religion, but most of the time you find him going, I just wish you knew what I knew. I wish because Jesus changes everything, and he does it in such an expert way, until finally you get to this point where he's like, Jesus is the same yesterday and today, and forever. He said, I'm not trying to get you to worship somebody different. This is the same God. This is the one who created the universe. This is the one who set up the sacrificial system and then made himself the sacrifice. That's all. He's the same yesterday, today, and he'll be the same forever. If you just knew this, it changed everything. I love it. Yeah, and I love the comparison. How I mean, think about all the different symbolisms. He's like, Hey, you know how God used to live in the temple. Well, guess what your body's now the temple, he says. You know how like you had to have a priest be the mediator between you and then the God who lives in the temple, Jesus is the high priest. And he's like, and you know how you had to bring a sacrifice to pay for your sins. Jesus is also the sacrifice, right. And he's going on and on, and he's saying, like, all the things you grew up with, all the symbolism, even even to the point where he's saying like, just like it's outside the city, it's even down to the very location, right, and all the symbolism about about it. He squeezes that. In the end, he's already had this big, long theological argument saying it's all about Jesus anyway. Oh, by the way, and he died outside the city. Right right, right, it's great. So yeah, I'm gonna tell you a quick thing. I'm not sure I've ever told you this before, but Hebrews four sixteen, you know, and I'm you know, just jumping around just for the sake of this conversation. But it said, this is when he's talking about Jesus Christ is our high priest, yes, right, And so verse fourteen says, so, then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, and he has faced all the same test things we do, yet he did not sin. And then here's the verse I chose for my ministry. It says, so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God, and there we receive his mercy, and we'll find grace to help us when we need it the most. Right. So it's the idea that nobody could enter the Holy of Holies. Right, But then obviously the veil rips in two. There's another symbolism, right, there's another piece of you know, symbolism where when the veil rips in two, the spirit of God, which had an address, now rushes out, and now God exists in the heart of every believer. So God ceases to be in one location, and now God is everywhere because of the veil, right, And so so every time you bow your head, you are entering into God's throne room. Right, So it's you know, long you have to go to a location. You bow your head before our heavenly Father, and you're before his before his face. You become bold to the throne of our gracious God. And so that's the invitation. So here's what I looked up. I looked up this big diagram. Now, I started a college ministry and it was on the third floor of the educational building, and so I called the ministry third floor, okay, And I wanted people to know where it was. But I based it off of this, and I said, if you do a study on the temple, the Holy Holies is on the third level. So there's one set of stairs, two sets of stairs, and then on the third level is the Holy of Holies. So every time you buy your head, welcome to the third floor. That that was the idea, right, And it was this all. It was all this symbolism and everything else, and people are like, dude, that's the coolest ministry. That's the coolest meaning, you know, And I would always give that meaning. I would always read that verse. I would say, it's the third floor of the temple, welcome to the third floor. And then we moved and our college ministry no longer met on the third floor. And now all of a sudden we met on the first floor of the student center. And everybody came to me and they go, so, what are you gonna call the ministry? And I said, third floor, because it's the third floor of the it's the presence of God. And they're like, that doesn't make any sense. I'm like, then you never got it. And I can totally tell who got it and who did right, but like ninety percent of the people didn't get it. And every time I said, well, now we meet on the first floor, not like every time you pray, you were on the third floor. That's right, that's right, but nobody got it, and so and so anyway, I kept the third floor, and I had to like bend over backwards, explaining to people the symbolism of, you know, of the New Testainment. Well, finally he knows he's talking to people who are going to struggle with that same thing. So in verse fifteen he says, therefore, let us offer through Jesus, a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance in his name, and don't forget to do good and share with those in need. Those are the sacrifices that please God. There you go. So he's buttoning it all up, explaining, listen, Jesus is the sacrifice. You don't need a sacrifice anymore. You want to keep sacrificing for God, worship Him through Jesus. That's awesome. And then bring the sacrifice of doing good for others, right, and those sacrifices please God now. And yeah, so he's still pointing the fact that it's all symbolic. So it's great, man, I love it. Good one well toay. Just as a reminder, our key verse today was Jesus is the same yesterday today changes he's unchanging, He's unfailing. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. It's the same God of our lives, with the same promises, so that is definitely our time. So hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Baba Gus