Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

With a sermon title that includes the words X-Ray Vision, using a superhero as a part of my introduction is a no-brainer.

Of course, who’s the superhero with X-Ray Vision?…Now listen, there’s a lot of interesting information on the internet about Superman’s X-Ray vision actually works.

If you are so inclined, Google it sometime and see for yourself.

One site raised this question.

“If Superman has X-ray vision, can he give you cancer?”

Have x-ray images of your teeth done at the dentist’s office before.

You’re laying in the chair, the dental assistant puts that lead apron over your chest.

They put that uncomfortable device in your mouth and tell you to bite down.

Then the line up the machine right at the spot they want to image.

Then what do they do?

They leave the room before they turn it on!

With a sermon title that includes the words X-Ray Vision, using a superhero as a part of my introduction is fitting.

Of course, who’s the superhero with X-Ray Vision

So, it’s a legit question whether Superman’s X-ray vision can cause cancer when he looks through people!

Now, if Stephen Schilling, a self-described comic aficionado and illustrator, is correct, you and I need not worry about if Superman shows up and peers into our insides.

He believes that Superman’s retina are sensitive to the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Therefore, you wouldn’t get cancer from Superman’s eyes because he is perceiving the X-rays which are always present and passing through your body.

He’s not projecting X-rays at you, bounce them off something behind you, back through your body, so he could see them.

I have absolutely no clue whether Mr. Schilling is correct, or whether this is useful at all.

However, the idea of Superman perceiving what is already there because his eyes are sensitive to its presence is exactly on point with what the Pastor is emphasizing for us in our text this morning.

The question is, what is faith, and what does it mean to live by faith?

The Pastor is about to answer that for us.

The first three words of v. 1 in ch.

11 are, “Now faith is.”

Faith is just wishful thinking.

It’s just hoping that things are going to work out even though you’re not really sure.

When the Bible talks about faith what’s clear is that it never presents faith as wishful thinking, or a wish for something better.

Even if we say that, “No, no, no.

When the Bible talks about faith, it’s not talking about a wish or a fantasy.”

Even if we say that, our lives often say that’s exactly what we believe.

We struggle to believe that what the Bible says is true because every one of us would rather live by sight than live by faith.

We can put the spiritual realities in the fantasy compartment of our brains because it’s hard to be confident in the fact that the heavenly realities the Bible gives us are more real than what we experience with our five senses.

You see, a lot of folks define faith as just wishful thinking.

It’s just hoping that things are going to work out well even though you’re not really sure.

When the Bible talks about faith what’s clear is that it never presents faith as wishful thinking, or a wish for something better.

Even if we say that, “No, no, no.

When the Bible talks about faith, I know it’s not talking about a wish or a fantasy.”

Even if we that’s what we say, our lives will often declare the opposite.

We struggle to believe that what the Bible says is true because every one of us would rather live by sight than live by faith.

We can put the spiritual realities in the fantasy compartment of our brains because it’s hard to be confident in the fact that the heavenly realities the Bible gives us are more real than what we experience with our five senses.

This passage, if you will, is about having eyes that are sensitive enough to perceive the truth in spite of what things appear to be.

The Pastor helps us take faith in God and his promises out of the fantasy department and into the firm position of the realist reality.

He wants his congregation to know the blessing of enduring through life by faith.

And these first seven verses of ch.

11 point us in that direction.

Here’s how we’re going to work through these verses.

The headings are: What Faith Sees, What Faith Receives, and What Faith Seeks.

What Faith Sees

I didn’t subtitle this message “X-Ray Vision” because I wanted to talk about Superman.

It’s because of the connection between sight and faith that brackets this first section.

Faith in the unseen undergirds the message of the whole chapter, but it’s of specific note in vv.

1-3 and v. 7

I subtitled this message “X-Ray Vision” because the connection sight and faith brackets this first section.

Faith in the unseen undergirds the message of the whole chapter, but it’s of specific note in vv.

1-3 and v. 7…

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for.

It is the conviction about the things we don’t see.

For by it the people of old received their commendation.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by God’s utterance, such that what is seen did not come to be from the things that are visible.

(, Ince translation)

By faith Noah, after he was warned about the things that were not yet seen, because he was devout he built an ark in order to save his household.

Through this salvation he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that corresponds to faith.

(, Ince translation)

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for.

It is the conviction about the things we don’t see.

Back in 2010 a new version of the movie The Karate Kid hit the screens.

12 year-old, Dre, moves with his mom from Detroit to China, and things do not go well for Dre.

There was one line in the movie that brought out our need to see what’s really real.

Dre had just gotten beat up by the bad kids, and Mr. Han jumps in and saves him.

After he chases the kids off he’s taking care of Dre’s injuries.

Dre looks at him and says, “I thought you were just a maintenance man.”

Mr. Han says, “You think only with your eyes.

So you are easy to fool.”

There was one line that brought out our need to see what’s really real.

Dre had just gotten beat up by the bad kids, and Mr. Han jumps in and saves him.

After he chases the kids off he’s taking care of Dre’s injuries.

Dre looks at him and says, “I thought you were just a maintenance man.”

Mr. Han says, “You think only with your eyes.

So you are easy to fool.”

That’s the problem the Pastor’s shaking the Hebrews out of.

They’re thinking with their eyes.

In the context of this book, what seems real to them is the old order of worship, the tabernacle, the priests, the sacrifices.

Had we been working through this book we would’ve seen how the Pastor repeatedly tells them that those things they see are are hoping in are obsolete and ready to vanish away.

Those things were just a shadow of the good things to come (10:1), and not the true form of the realities.

Setting your mind on that is why you’re easily fooled.

Same with us.

We think with our eyes.

So, if everything around me is all good, then I’m good.

If everything I see around me is jacked up, then I’m jacked up.

Those things were just a shadow of the good things to come (10:1), and not the true form of the realities.

Setting your mind on that is why you’re easily fooled.

Same with us.

We think with our eyes.

So, if everything around me is all good, then I’m good.

If everything I see around me is jacked up, then I’m jacked up.

Don’t you know that it is possible for everything in our life to be going well and for us to still be a mess?

And it’s possible for all hell to break loose around us and for us to be OK?

What determines our ability to endure is the object of our faith.

What determines our ability not to become full of pride and arrogance when things are going great, or not to become completely crushed when life is hard, is the object of our faith.