COGIC Power for Living | WORSHIP
CHRIST'S MAJESTY – Adult Sunday School Lesson for 12/7/2014
This review
is brought to you by the Kentucky First
Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ Sunday
School Department.
LESSON AIM: By
the end of the lesson, we will: consider why Jesus is worthy of adoration and
worship; affirm that Jesus’ superiority and God's anointing of Him "with
the oil of gladness" leads to our response of worship and lead adults to
practice meaningful worship.
BIBLE
TRUTH: Jesus Christ is the gift of salvation that God's people
respond to with worship.
Hebrews 1:1-9
| King James Version (KJV)
1 God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets,
2 Hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by
whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much
better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they.
5 For unto which of
the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?
And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
6 And again, when he
bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels
of God worship him.
7 And of the angels he
saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
8 But unto the Son he
saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is
the sceptre of thy kingdom.
9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and
hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows.
We’re
beginning a very beneficial and “juicy” book of study in Hebrews. We are not
sure of who wrote Hebrews. Some people teach that Paul did it, but, again,
there is not sure reference that it was Paul. Whoever the writer was, he was
very popular with the original audience of this epistle. We’ll have to save
that question during our first family reunion in Heaven.
Just to
give you a sense of where we are in the full scope of the Bible…we’re jumping
into text that is WELL after the Day of Pentecost (Read Act 2:4). After this,
the church began to flourish with believers from all over the world. At this
time, Nero was emperor. While he was away, a fire broke out in Rome and burned
a large portion of the city. It took the citizens 6 days to get the fire under
control. Of course, the Christians were blamed for the fire, due to the new
widespread of converts to Christianity. So now, the Romans were persecuting the
Christians, and making anyone who was “thinking” of converting think twice. The
writer of Hebrews came along ot encourage them to “fight on and persevere”, and
warns Gentiles not to return to their pagan ways, and for Jews to not abandon
Christianity for their old ways of Judaism.
This book
is largely focused around inheritance and reward. The writer also “reintroduces”
us to our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. He points to the As we dig deeper,
we’ll find that God is sharing much needed information to us, His people, in order
for us to not suffer loss and to experience the FULLNESS of our salvation. Let’s
jump in!
Verse 1
begins by establishing the deity of Jesus Christ. It brings into account all of
the different ways that God has chosen to communicate with men throughout the
ages. He spoke to Adam in the garden, He spoke through prophets, through dreams
and visions. But now, He has spoken through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus
Christ. Jesus is more than any of us could have ever hoped for or imagined! In
the Old Testament, God spoke to man through other men and as we moved into the
New Testament, He came to this world, in the flesh, face to face, up close and
personal, because of His great love for humanity.
Many people
were beginning to get it twisted, by equating Jesus with angels. Sure, both
came from Heaven, but take a look at verse 4. Jesus was made higher and
superior to all angels. He is Lord of all, because He after coming to this
Earth, dying and rising from the grave, Jesus continued to be fully, the Son of
God and fully man.
So, now
that the writer has level set with the mainly Jewish audience of this book, there
is something more to discuss…the Mosaic Law and the New Covenant: by which one
should we abide? This concept is known as progressive revelation. Thank God for
the Jews. They are largely responsible for preserving the Bible that we study
today with tender, loving, care. They were also really good about embedding the
Mosaic Law and precepts into their generations. So, the writer of Hebrews had
somewhat of a tough task sharing what he shared with them next. “Change your
thinking!” Jesus Christ is the New Covenant.
The Mosaic Law was revealed through their forefathers and the forerunners of
Christ. Those who abided by that law ate the good of the land and were blessed
to remain in the fellowship of God. But now, God came to us directly, in the
human form of Jesus Christ. He walked and dwelt among us. He led by example,
the life that God wanted for each of us to live. He never condemned the
foundation of the Mosaic Covenant, He simply enhanced and built upon it with
The New Covenant.
In today’s
world, we would consider this a huge upgrade and a reason to rejoice in the joy
of our salvation and this leads to “the oil of gladness”. Remember, in the days
of the Bible, when there was an anointing,
oil was poured onto the person, beginning at the top of their head. It was such
a substantial amount, that it flowed down…like Aaron (Psalm 133:2). The significance of this flow has fruitful results.
There is harmony, peace, and gladness. God’s anointed people permeate all of
these traits. Some of the older saints said, they had the “glad glads!” Let’s
praise Him!
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