Introduction to the Book of Hebrews

July 29, 2023 • Pastor Dallas Sandoval

Here is my introduction to the Book of Hebrews. I encourage you to be reading ahead thru this amazing Book. Let God speak to you personally, and then let’s come together and go deeper. In his opening, the writer of Hebrews doesn’t give his name, or a greeting.  The writer of Hebrews is not stated. There are many opinions as to who wrote the Book of Hebrews; Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, and Paul are the most commonly suggested. My opinion is Paul. Throughout our study through Hebrews, I will be using the phrase, “The writer of Hebrews.” It was probably written before AD 70 because it mentions Temple sacrifices and doesn’t mention the destruction to the Temple.  The Book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians to emphasize the superiority of Christ over the Old Testament system of Judaism. The Lord Jesus Christ is better than an all angels, all Old Testament Leaders, and all Old Testament sacrifices. There are at least 20 different names or titles given to Jesus in the book of Hebrews. The word "better" appears 12 times in Hebrews; 1:4; 6:9; 7:7, 19, 22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 11:16, 35, 40; 12:24. The background to the Book of Hebrews is that some of the Jewish Christians were wavering in their faith, in their trusting Christ for salvation/redemption and being tempted to either turn back to trusting in Judaism to save them, or mixing law with grace to save them. Hebrews contains at least 5 warnings to these Jewish Christians about turning away from believing that Christ’s sacrifice was enough to make them right with God; (2:1-4; 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:12; 10:19-39; 12:14-29). There are at least 61 references to the word of God in the Book of Hebrews. (Romans 10:17) Hebrews is a call to maintain faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews is an excellent explanation of what it means to have faith in Christ. The letter to the Hebrews is such a rich study that we aren’t going to blaze thru it chapter by chapter, but we will study through it line by line. You don’t want to miss these studies. If you must be gone, please listen to the Bible studies on the Church app or look for the audio link on the band app.