Jesus became human, endured frailty and weakness, weathered temptations, and suffered during His time in the flesh. Because Jesus has personally experienced all this, he is sympathetic and compassionate toward us. However, Jesus never gave into temptation and knew no sin. Therefore, he has become our perfect, eternal High
Priest, and has become the source of salvation for all who obey him.

Like last week, this week’s passage uses excerpts from Psalm 95 as it challenges us to respond to God’s invitation into His rest. The author stresses that “today” is the right day for us to listen and respond to the Word of God. Simply hearing is not enough, we must also believe to be saved and share in God’s rest.

This week’s passage in Hebrews 3 introduces one of the letter’s major themes: rest. Building upon the Old Testament account of Moses and the exodus, the author points out how rebellious and hardhearted the Hebrews were despite the overwhelming evidence of God’s goodness toward them. The text then implores us to examine
our own hearts - have we allowed our hearts to become hardened by sin? We are then exhorted to encourage one another each day so that we may hold fast to our confidence in Christ.

This week we examined Hebrews 3:1-6. In this short passage, the life and ministry of Moses is used as a shining example of a faithful servant in God’s house. Although admirable, Moses and his ministry were superseded by the much-superior life and ministry of Jesus. Through faith in Jesus we are no longer God’s servants, but His sons and daughters. This passage challenges us to examine our lives - are we faithfully joining God as He builds His house, or have we begun to erect our own?

This week we covered Hebrews 2:1-5. This short passage is a sharp call to wake up and pay attention to our spiritual walk with Christ. The warning of drifting away from and neglecting our salvation remains a very real hazard for believers today.

This week we finished the rest of Hebrews chapter 2, which (surprise, surprise) is all about Jesus. This passage highlights how Jesus humbled Himself by becoming fully human to redeem mankind from our fallen state. Despite Jesus’ complete humanity, He remained fully God. Being fully man and fully God enabled Jesus to live a sinless life, to conquer sin and death, to triumph over His enemies, and to pioneer our salvation.

This week we began our study through the incredible book of Hebrews! Written as a sermon by an unknown author, Hebrews is a book that is all about Jesus. Every chapter is focused on the supremacy of Jesus, as well as all that He has done and continues to do for us. This week we examined chapter one, which teaches that Jesus is so much greater than any created thing, including all angels and spirits.

This week’s theme is Preparation. God used the prophet Isaiah to prepare the people for their upcoming exile by prophesying about a future time of peace with God and others. God also used John the Baptizer to prepare the Jews for the arrival of their Messiah. John’s message was clear and simple - repentance and baptism were key elements of preparing oneself for the Lord.

For over 1,500 years the church has observed the four-week season dedicated to anticipating the arrival, or "advent," of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah and King. This week we explored the situation the Israelites found themselves in when Isaiah the prophet declared to them that a Savior would come and deliver them. Jesus would be
the Light that pierced the darkness.

This week we concluded our Tree of Life discipleship series. We ended where we began - with the Tree of Life, which is promised to once more be made available to us. (Rev. 2:7, 22:14) Until then, we fulfill the role of the true Tree of Life by co-inhabiting
the physical and spiritual realms; exhibiting God’s restorative plan in this world; producing supernatural fruit; and offering everlasting life through Christ to anyone who would receive His Gospel through faith. As spiritual trees of life, we act as intermediaries on this earth, representing God and His Tree of Life to this world which so desperately needs to experience Him and its healing fruit.