Hebrews 4:14-5:10 expands on the imagery of Jesus being greater than Moses to show how the priesthood of Jesus is better than the priesthood under Moses’ brother Aaron. Why is the idea of priesthood still important today? We’ll see how Jesus’ priesthood sympathizes with weakness & intercedes for others before God; therefore, we abide in His grace and example.

Valley of Vision Prayer: "The Broken Heart"

Guest speaker Darrell Cook (Senior Campus Minister, Baptist Collegiate Ministries at Virginia Tech) starts us back in our Hebrews journey. In Hebrews 3:16-4:13, we see how Jesus is greater than the condition of our hearts. When we strive to enter today into His rest, His works, and His Word, we experience how God reconciles the broken condition of our hearts to His image through Christ.

In Malachi 2:17-3:15, we saw God calling His people to trust that His reconciliation work is worth the sacrifice of faith. As Malachi’s prophecy draws to a close in Mal. 3:16-4:6, God shows Israel why trusting His covenant is so important. We trust God’s reconciliation work so He can bring us into His presence, grace, and life.

In Malachi 2, God reminded His people who they were to Him; priests who make peace and partners who bear faithful fruit. Once we remember who we are, we can now understand & see what God desires of us. Malachi 2:17-3:15 shows us that God calls His people to trust His reconciliation work is worth the sacrifice of faith.

The message of Malachi began with God confronting our idolatry of identity by reminding us of our value to and identity in Him in Malachi 1:1-14. As we continue into Malachi 2, God will start to literally spell out for His people who He made them to be. Today, we’ll see how God made us to be priests who make peace and partners who bear faithful fruit.

In December, we’re going to pause Hebrews to walk through the Old Testament prophet, Malachi. Malachi’s message for the people of God relates well to the anxious, identity-driven culture we struggle with today (even in our own hearts!) Today, we’ll see in Malachi 1 how God confronts our idolatry of identity by reminding us of our value to and identity in Him.

Hebrews 3 continues with our Exodus imagery today to show us how Jesus is greater than Moses. Where last week the Exodus images reminded the early church that Jesus is greater than godly power/production/self, the language this week points to another powerful reminder. Hebrews 3 shows us that God’s people are a house built in Christ; therefore, we humble ourselves to be reconciled to Christ’s design.

As we move into Hebrews 2 today, we’ll see a familiar theme from Exodus emerge. Whereas in Hebrews 1 we were called to take on Christ’s image as God’s children instead of the image of His servants (angels), Hebrews 2 builds on this to warn against the power/production/self life: that God’s people cling to who Jesus is to remind ourselves His reconciliation work is greater than godly power/production/self.

Today, we begin a journey through the book of Hebrews to build off of our Exodus study. Exodus showed how God designed His people for life with Him, but it left us with the question, “how do we get back into His design permanently?” Hebrews presents Christ as the fulfillment of God’s OT design; today, we’ll see God’s people adopt the image of His Son, Jesus Christ; not the image of His ministering angels.

Closing prayer from The Valley of Vision.

We saw last week how God desires elders to shepherd themselves and others in God’s heart and Word through a life of humble discipleship from several of Paul’s pastoral letters. Today, we’ll look at the calling of the first deacons in Acts 6 to see how they complement elders in leadership; that Deacons assist the Elders in uniting the church into God’s image through serving the flock’s physical needs.