A few months ago, John Hosier gave a series of four lectures on Hebrews at Gateway Church, Poole. I was unfortunately unable to attend due to them being shortly after the birth of our fifth child. But I was pleased to notice recently that they are available for download. Unfortunately the final recording is incomplete, and the accompanying notes are not available, but it is still well worth hearing. I always find John Hosier to be an excellent communicator, with a real gift for clarifying some of the more perplexing parts of Scripture (he is also an expert in Revelation).

The second talks is of particular interest since it covers both the warning passages, and the meaning of “rest”. I found the discussion of rest to be helpful, because despite having read three commentaries on Hebrews (France, Wright, and Brown), I have never felt I’ve really grasped what it is about. I recently bought Peter O’Brien’s new commentary on Hebrews from the Pillar series, but have only read the introduction so far.

As for the warning passages, half a talk isn’t enough to do it justice or fully nail down your position, but I found his material helpful, and there seems to be some agreement with my own position on perseverance which I have blogged about and given a talk on before (although I felt he left open the loss of reward interpretation as an option, which I am not persuaded by).

John Hosier’s talks are available here:

Part 1[audio:http://www.gatewaychurch.me/audio/sermons/download.php?file=Hebrews_1.mp3]

Part 2[audio:http://www.gatewaychurch.me/audio/sermons/download.php?file=Hebrews_2.mp3]

Part 3[audio:http://www.gatewaychurch.me/audio/sermons/download.php?file=Hebrews_3.mp3]

Part 4 (incomplete)[audio:http://www.gatewaychurch.me/audio/sermons/download.php?file=Hebrews_4_(Part%20Recording).mp3]