Welcome to the 10-Minute Bible, where we look at one book of the Bible in 10 minutes. Well, give or take 10 minutes. In this session, we're going to look at the book of Hebrews. Now, if you heard me say throughout this series, you need to understand three things before you understand any book, including the books of the Bible. The first thing you need to understand is what is the subject of the book. which is the answer to the question, what is the author talking about? The second question, second thing you need to know, is how does the author develop that subject? I call that the structure. What's the structure of the book? Meaning, how does he develop what he's talking about? Now, in a secular book outside the Bible, they very often have a table of contents, and that gives you some idea of what the author's doing. That's not in the Bible, as you know. A good study Bible may give you an outline that would be helpful. But you need to ask, what is the author talking about? That's the subject. And how does he develop that subject? That's the structure. The third thing you need to understand is the situation. That is, why did the original author, write to the original audience on that subject. In virtually every book of the Bible, not all, but in virtually every book of the Bible, something came up that provoked the writing of that book. If you can put your finger on that, you go a long way in understanding that book. So the situation consists of the author, the recipients, the original recipients, and the purpose. Now, with those three things in mind, the subject, the structure, and the situation, let's examine the book of Hebrews. And the first question would be, what is the subject? Virtually everybody agrees that the subject is Jesus Christ being superior to Judaism. The word better appears 13 times in this book. And if you understand what's going on, which I'll explain in a minute, it's easy to understand that what he's really doing is talking about that Jesus is superior to Judaism. I would add to that a little more detail and say that Jesus Christ, as the son of God, who is king and priest, is superior to Judaism. But the bottom line is the subject is Jesus is superior to Judaism. The structure is a little distinctive. We've been going through the New Testament and I've been talking about epistles that had the format of an ancient letter. Well, the book of Hebrews is not like that. It lacks a salutation. and begins more like an essay than an epistle, but it ends like a letter. And some have suggested that it was maybe a sermon put in the format of an epistle to at least some degree. At any rate, I would say that the structure is distinctive. So let me talk about that in detail and you'll see what I mean. I would say the first major point of the book is simply a prologue which this is the first four verses of the first chapter. That the first major point of the book is that Jesus is the son slash king. That starts in chapter one, verse five, and goes through chapter two, or actually chapter four, verse 13. So that in that first major section, we're talking about Jesus is the son, but he's the king son. Now you can subdivide that section in various parts. The one thing you need to know is there are five warnings in this book, and two of them are in the first major portion. The first one is a warning of don't neglect what you know, pay attention. The second warning is don't harden your heart, but hold on to the Lord. The second major part of the body of the book begins in 414 and goes through 1019, actually 1039, I should say. And in that part, we're talking about Jesus is the son, only now we're talking about he is the son slash priest. We're going to focus on the priesthood of Christ, which means he's superior to all the priesthood mentioned in the Mosaic law. Now, You can subdivide that section, and the one thing I would say is you need to note is there are two more warnings in that section. One of them is don't fall away. Go on to maturity. The fourth warning, the second one in this section is don't willfully sin, rather draw near. The next major section of the book is, the first is, I'm talking about just the body of the book. Jesus is the son slash king. The second is Jesus is the son slash priest. And the third major section is, therefore live a life of faith. And this is where you get into chapter 11. where he just talks about one person after another in the Old Testament that walked by faith. When he gets to chapter 12, the point is endure like a son. And then there is the fifth and final warning in this section, and that warning is don't refuse to hear, but rather serve him. Then, the one last section of the book is that I would call personal greetings and a benediction, and that's in the latter part of chapter 13. Now, we need to talk about the situation, and that will really put this book into focus. For example, we need to start with who's the author. Well, the author doesn't identify himself. When I was in college, I took a course in Hebrews and the professor laid out all the options and Paul is at the top, then Barnabas, Aquila, and Priscilla. There's a short little list of people who could be the authors. A lot of people think it was Paul. As I listened to that lecture back in college, knowing nothing, just being brand new in the faith, actually, it seemed to me that everything you could say about Paul fit Barnabas. And I sat there and concluded, well, Barnabas is the author of this book. And I discovered later, many people concur with that. For example, Paul says he signs every book he wrote. There's no Paul's signature in this book. But everything that applies to him applies to Barnabas. He was a Levite. He was familiar with the teachings of Paul. He knew Timothy. He is called the son of exhortation in the book of Acts. And he says this is a word of exhortation. So I think that the evidence, as far as I am concerned, indicates that Barnabas wrote the book of Hebrews. As a matter of fact, some Christian authors after the close of the New Testament said Barnabas wrote it, including Tertullian and some others as well. I think Barnabas wrote the book. Origen said, who really wrote the epistle? God only knows. Maybe that's the bottom line answer. At any rate, when it was written, the sacrificial system apparently was still going on. That means it was written before 70 A.D., and so many would say that it was written probably 68 or 69 A.D. The recipients were Christian Jews who were thinking about departing from the faith. And so the purpose of the book is to check their drift from Christ back to Judaism by showing that Christ is superior. I would say, if I were putting the book together, that since Christ is the Son-King and Son-Priest who is superior to Judaism, Jewish believers should not go back to Judaism, but should by faith endure so that they will be rewarded. And the spiritual lesson for us is just that. Believers who by faith endure will grow to maturity now. and they will be rewarded later. That last simple sentence really summarizes this book and really is the takeaway for anybody who reads it intelligently.