Hello everybody, and welcome in to episode 61 of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading Hebrews 1 today and our focus is on knowing God…and a brief bit about angels. We are a daily 10 minute podcast, where we will dig in to the truth of the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day and discussing it. Welcome to new listeners in Bihar, India, Parts unknown, Russia and China, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Alberta, Canada and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thanks for listening! Our goal is to encourage DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast Don’t forget about our new web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more – Click here for our reading plan
We open with a comment from Og Keep:
Another point of support for the historicity of the Lucan account is the amount of verifiable details. In Acts 27 alone, we have these details: “A centurion of the Augustan Cohort, named Julius…” “An Adramyttian ship…” “A Macedonian of Thessalonica …” “We put in at Sidon…” “Sailed under the shelter of Cyprus…” “landed at Myra in Lycia…” “Off Cnidus…” “Under the shelter of Crete, Off Salmone…” “A place called Fair Havens …” “The city of Lasea … ” And those are all before verse 9. A made up story would be deliberately vague about such details: “We came to a place where there were ships, and hired a ship for Italy, but there was a storm…” is how a made up story might go. In today’s fiction, yes, we do insert realistic details in order to make the story seem real. But in the first century, writers didn’t make up details like these. The fact that Luke is so specific about the place names and the identities of persons indicates not only that this was a true story, but also that Luke fully expected people familiar with those people and places to verify and affirm those details.
I mention his full name to encourage you to check out some of Og Keep’s writing on Amazon. Og is an author and a trusted friend, who has written several apologetics books, including The Atheist’s Tale, Caveman Apologetics and How to Be a Christian. You can find them on Amazon HERE. Og Keep Books.
I’ll add to what Og says by pointing out Acts 28, which we read yesterday, ends with most of the Roman Jewish people leaving Paul’s final message quite unconvinced and disgruntled. Once again – if Luke were inventing history here, we’d expect Paul’s last message to be well received and responded to, and amazing things to happen, but instead, we get what really happened, and it seems incredibly genuine and authentic.
Our main focus today is on how Jesus reveals to us who God is, but let’s begin with a tidbit on angels. Hebrews 1 contains what is probably the best and most succinct definition of angels in the entire Bible:
14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:14)
This is a verse that many point to as evidence that humans have guardian angels, and while it certainly doesn’t prove such a claim, it could be read to at least vaguely point in that direction. This also gives us a very succinct idea of what angels are up to in this age – they are sent by God to serve those who are going to inherit salvation. While this is quite vague also – ‘to serve’ can have a very broad range of meaning in the Bible – it is what I might call wonderfully vague – in that it leaves room for all sorts of fantastical intervention by the angelic realm into our lives. How do angels serve those who are being saved? The Bible doesn’t specify an answer to that very much, though in Acts 27, Paul speaks of an angel standing beside him in a dire circumstance to give him encouragement and a message from God, and that would certainly seem to qualify! I suspect that 99 plus percent of that service will be unseen and unknown to most humans, but the Bible does seem to indicate that angelic activity is a present reality, so that should be comforting to us, I believe.
Of even greater comfort to us, however, is the focus of Hebrews on the superiority of Jesus to everything else. As comforting as it is to hear that angels have been sent to serve the people of God from time to time, how much MORE comforting is it to read in the book of Hebrews that Jesus – superior to the angels in every way – is interceding for us right now in the Heavenly tabernacle?! We have much encouragement awaiting us as we read through Hebrews this month.
For today, our big question is: How can we know God? The writer of Hebrews gives us a wonderful answer to that question, in what is our verse of the day:
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:3
There are few, if any, more profound verses in the entire Bible than this one. Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact expression of His nature. This means that if we know Jesus – and we can know Him thoroughly through His Word – if we know Jesus, we will know God the Father. No less an authority than Jesus Himself teaches us this wonderful truth in John:
If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works.11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. John 14:7-11
This is a great place for us to close today -reflecting on the glorious truth that we know God and understand who He is through the revelation of Jesus.
End of the Show: Bible memory verse for MARCH!: Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore, [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.”
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