Hebrews... An ancient sermon?

[kyredneck]

I think it was aimed at Jewish converts to Christ. the apostasy of some from the same group has much weight in chapter 6. But it is also of benefit to believers of all time especially today when many want to return to animal sacrifices unknowingly committing an unforgivable sin.

Those Hebrews Christians (made partakers of the Holy Spirit) that fell away back to the apostate religion that crucified the Lord crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh in doing so. The righteous blood of Christ was now on their hands and they would partake of the wrath that was soon to be poured out on 'that generation' that murdered Christ.

4 For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Heb 6

 

[Guido]

The sources I've read -- and they are many -- all say that Hebrews is a homily, concluding with a chapter in the style of an epistle; showing the superiority of new things to old things, and exhorting the readers, after many a passage with doctrine, not to cast off a thing, warning them of judgment as a consequence. But on the meaning of the warnings they have reached no agreement.

 

[AustinC]

The more I read Hebrews and study it, the more I view it as a sermon, perhaps given by Paul, just before he was imprisoned in Jerusalem.
What I find interesting is how the sermon is given to exhort believers not to fall back to old ways, yet it is ever encouraging that the preacher never thinks they will fall back. It is a great call for us to daily check ourselves to remain faithful and for our brothers and sisters to keep each other accountable.
Hebrews 3:12-14
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.

This sermon is also for those attending who were not yet believers, but were a part of the church. The preacher calls them to believe.

Hebrews 4:1-3,6-7
God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.

For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

I highlighted the truth of the Old Testament as well as the new, that all who enter the Kingdom enter by faith alone.