Sermon Tone Analysis

REMEMBERING OUR VETERANS

Veterans Day 2007

Hebrews 12:1-3 (11:32-12:3)

Introduction: Today is a day when Americans honor those who have served in the armed forces of this country.

As Americans we recognize the spirit of heroism and sacrifice of our military men and women.

Beyond that, as Christians we recognize that they are not only national heroes; they are God-given instruments for our protection - the sword that our government "bears not in vain".

As American Christians we have a dual heritage.

And as Christians we are exhorted to remember our veterans as well.

One of the key factors in the ruin of the Church today, of its transformation into something else, something mutated and twisted and pitiful, is the failure to remember our veterans.

- In our text this morning the Christian life is likened to a race-not a sprint, but an agonizing marathon.

And we who run the race are told to look to our veterans, to those who have already finished the race, in order build endurance.

~* 12:1-2 are one sentence in Greek.

The subject of the sentence is "we" and the verb is "let us run".

Run what?

The marathon race that is laid out before us

- The subject we is emphatic - WE need to run.

Don't worry about other runners-we need to run.

- The verb "run" is the word ???????? - it's an intense word.

It means "make rapid movement, run, rush, advance, exert oneself".

1 Cor.

9:24

John MacArthur writes:

"Unfortunately, many people are not even in the race, and many Christians could hardly be described as running the race at all.

Some are merely jogging, some are walking slowly, and some are sitting or even lying down.

Yet the biblical standard for holy living is a race, not a morning constitutional.

Race is the Greek agon, from which we get agony.

A race is not a thing of passive luxury, but is demanding, sometimes grueling and agonizing, and requires our utmost in self-discipline, determination, and perseverance." 1

- But it is such a daunting, exhausting race.

Some days we feel so tired and the hurdles seem so high.

Sometimes we stumble and the pain from the scrapes and bruises is so intense.

How can we keep running when we're tired and winded?

We remember our veterans.

• v. 1: "Therefore . .

."

- In the context of all that was said so far, logically, consequently . . .

• v. 1: "since we have so great a cloud of witnesses . .

."

- There has been a very wrong idea about the nature of these witnesses circulating in preaching and commentaries.

Here's a classic example:

"WHAT an awful sight the rows above rows of spectators must have been to the wrestler who looked up at them from the arena, and saw a mist of white faces and pitiless eyes all directed on himself!

How many a poor gladiator turned in his despair from them to the place where purple curtains and flashing axes proclaimed the presence of the emperor, on whose word hung his life, whose will could crown him with a rich reward!

That is the picture which this text brings before our eyes, as the likeness of the Christian life.

We are in the arena; the race has to be run, the battle to be fought, All round and high above us, a mist, as it were, of fixed gazers beholds us, and on the throne is the Lord of life, the judge of the strife, whose smile is better than all crowns, whose downward-pointing finger seals our fate.

We are compassed with a cloud of witnesses, and we may see Jesus the author and finisher of faith.

Both of these facts are alleged here as encouragements to persevering, brave struggle in the Christian life."2

- I'm sorry - how is that encouraging again?

- When you hear the word "witnesses" here, don't think spectators at a game.

This is a totally different Greek word.

The word for someone watching an event is ??????, from which we get "theater".

That word doesn't appear anywhere in the N.T.

- The word here is not ??????; it's ????????.

What word does that sound like?

What did a martyr do?

He testified to the truth of something by his words and life.

~* Don't think spectators at a game; think witnesses in a courtroom.

That is how the Greek word is used everywhere else in Scripture.

Matt.

18:16

"But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that ??BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY ??FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED."

Rev. 17:6

"And I saw the woman drunk with ??the blood of the ??saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

When I saw her, I wondered ??greatly."

Acts 22:20 (Paul, in his testimony, says to God)

"'And ??when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.'"

- The witnesses are not watching us and cheering us on; they are testifying to us by their lives-they are not looking at us; we are looking at them!

- Not only the meaning of the word, but the context of the passage demands this.

The witnesses are the people we just read about in chapter 11!

Illus: Let's stick with Paul's use of sports metaphors.

A young college freshman from a small farm town, on a football scholarship, shows up at the big college campus.

Everything looks huge.

Pretty soon it starts to weigh on him and he starts to think about just how tiny he is and how he practice starts the next week.

He starts to convince himself that he is going to get slaughtered, that within a month he's going to be washed out and on a bus back home.

Late one night he's out walking and he passes the athletic building.

He notices a single light burning inside, so he tries the door and finds it unlocked.

He is alone inside, except for an old janitor mopping the floors.

The wise old janitor recognizes the look in the kid's eyes and nods his head toward the glass enclosure next to the kid.

Inside are a couple of trophies and behind each one is a photo.

As the kid squints to make out the faces he hears a noise over his shoulder.

The janitor has come up behind him.

The old man smiles wistfully and begins to tell the boy the story of each of the kids in the picture-how he remembers when they showed up at the school scared and alone.

And how this one went on to win state, that one went on to win this tournament and that race.

Then the janitor reaches over and turns on all of the lights.

The trophy cases go on and on all the way down the hall-hundreds of trophies, with a photo behind each one and the story of a champion in each picture, a champion who started out as a scared freshman just like that kid.

How do you think that freshman felt as he walked out of that building after that? 3

- Hebrews 11 is the trophy room of Christianity; 12:1 is the old janitor pointing to the pictures and saying, "See?

You have a whole cloud of people whose lives tell you the race can be run successfully."

- The race is "runnable" and the race is winnable.

The lives of all sorts of Christians testify to that fact.

The problem is that we don't take time in front of the trophy case anymore!

Rom.

15:4

- When is the last time you read a Christian biography?

Shame on us if we know more about which actress is living with whatever actor or what musician is in the paparazzi's eye this week; but have no sense of our own Christian history.

- More importantly, the last time you were tired or discouraged, did you take time in front of the trophy case of Scripture?

- An athlete who wants to focus on his sport spends more time in the gym than he does in the off-campus bar, more time in training than in entertainment.

Andrew Murray wrote:

"A race means . . .

concentration of purpose and will, strenuous and determined effort.

It means that a man while he is on the course gives himself wholly to one thing, running with all his might.

It means that for the time being he forgets everything for the all-absorbing desire, to gain the prize.

The Christian course means this all though life: a whole-hearted surrender of oneself, to put aside everything for the sake of God and His favour.

The men who enter the course are separated from the crowd of idle spectators: they each of them can say, One thing I do-they run." 4

In 1895 Fanny Crosby wrote:

O happy ones, that sweetly sing,

In yonder world so fair;