Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

“Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words!” - Francis of Assisi (?)

Introduction:

Introduction:

Good morning!

It is great to be here worshipping with all of you this morning… If you are wondering where Marshall is, he is preaching in the East and University Regions today...

The object of our faith is Jesus

This past week many of the ministers throughout the Americas and the Caribbean were in Broward for the Miami School of Missions… It was great to be able to spend time with them this past week, and to hear from Sebastian last weekend and Alberto today…

The essence of our faith

This afternoon, Jose Luis and Elizabeth Estrada from the church in San Jose, Costa Rica will be sharing their testimony of faith IN SPANISH at a “Pot Luck” dinner at the church building at 2400 S. Goldenrod Road… We’d love for you to join us...

This year our theme is “By Faith”, as we study through Hebrews we start to understand some things about faith… First of all Hebrews is talking about the object of our faith, Jesus.

Chapters 1-10 and then into chapters 12 and 13 we see that Jesus himself is the object of our faith.

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve learned a couple things about the essence of our faith, Let’s look at

Before we jump into today’s passage, I’d like to review the first few verses of ...

Heb 11:1-2

Faith Speaks Loudly

The quote is credited to Francis of Assisi and although it is doubtful that he uttered these words… The idea is solid… We should live lives that preach the gospel without the need for words… Today we are going to take a moment to study out the biblical account of Abel who lives loudly, even in death and preaches righteousness even though we don’t have an account of a single word he said… But before we get to , want to review the first three verses of Hebrews 11.

is a role-call of men and women of faith

Notice what it said… “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

This is the essence of the definition of faith.

The author then goes on to state that, “This (faith) is what the ancients were commended for.”

Now, what you have in the remainder of is basically a role-call of faith heroes.

Men and women who lived out their faith in their own situations and were commended for it.

By no means is this a list of perfect people, far from it, but they were a faithful people and we invite you to join us as we study out their lives and strive to be those who live “By Faith” and do not shrink back.

,

Before he goes into the list, the writer reminds us of something else… In verse 3, he says...

The cornerstone of faith is the belief that God formed everything out of nothing… The theological term is ex ni·hi·lo God spoke everything into existence… Nobody was there… How do we know it happened?

BY FAITH.

The writer tells us that the foundation is our belief that God exists and that God is the one that spoke into motion everything that exists.

Marshall did a great job a couple of weeks ago of showing us the complexity of the creation.

This is what God did and this is the very foundation of our faith.

Before we jump into today’s passage, I’d like to review the first few verses of ...

/ˈeks ˈnē(h)əlō,ˈnī(h)əlō/

adverbFORMAL

out of nothing.

"the fashioning of life ex nihilo by God"

The writer is also calling our attention back to the book of Genesis… where we see the lives of the first eight people that are listed.

It seems logical that the writer would start tracing the thread of faith from the book of Genesis, but what I find interesting as that he would start the list with a man named Abel.

That’s who we are going to look at today and see what we can glean from his life of faith.

says,

You might find it interesting that the writer would begin with Abel, we don’t really know that much about Abel, why would he start with Abel?

“Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words!” - Francis of Assisi (?)

“Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words!” - Francis of Assisi (?)

The quote is credited to Francis of Assisi and although it is doubtful that he uttered these words… The idea is solid… We should live lives that preach the gospel without the need for words… Today we are going to take a moment to study out the biblical account of Abel who lives loudly, even in death and preaches righteousness even though we don’t have an account of a single word he said… But before we get to , want to review the first three verses of .

If we look at who the writer of Hebrews what writing to, it starts to make sense.

You see the writer of Hebrews is writing to struggling Hebrew (Jewish) Christians.

They were facing persecution from the outside, from the Roman Empire, and from within from their Jewish brethren, that were upset that they has claimed Jesus as the Messiah and had broken away from Judaism, so they were being persecuted on two fronts

If we look at who the writer of Hebrews what writing to, it starts to make sense.

You see the writer of Hebrews is writing to struggling Hebrew (Jewish) Christians.

They were facing persecution from the outside, from the Roman Empire, and from within from their Jewish brethren, that were upset that they has claimed Jesus as the Messiah and had broken away from Judaism, so they were being persecuted on two fronts.

In this context we can easily see why the writer started with Abel.

We remember the story… Cain killed his brother… Primarily for his faith… so the writer is instructing and encouraging these Hebrew Christians that are experiencing persecution from their brothers, so to speak, the Jews.

Romulus and Remus

The original readers also would have connected this to the Roman Empire.

If you remember back to World History, back to the inception of Rome, although it is hazy as to what is myth and what is fact… There were two brothers that were part of what would be the beginning of the Roman Empire.

Their names were Romulus and Remus.

These brothers got into an argument about where they were going to build their new city.

Romulus had chosen the Palatine Hill and Remus preferred the Aventine Hill.

The argument ended with Romulus killing Remus and founding Rome (named after himself) on the Palatine Hill.

So in two different ways you can see the context in which the readers of this letter are processing that the writer is beginning with a man who was killed by his own brother.

Both for their persecution from their brethren, the Jewish people, and from the way their other persecutor, Rome, had come into existence.

So the beginning of this list would have been processed uniquely by it’s original audience.

There are a few things that jump out of the text to teach us about faith… The first one is…

By Faith, Abel Brought God a Better Offering

By Faith, Abel Brought God a Better Offering

What made his offering better?

We need to read the original account in Genesis 4...

What does the text say about these offerings?

Cain and Abel were sons of Adam and Eve.

I’m sure that Adam and Eve would have told stories about what life used to be like when they walked with God in the Garden.

I’m sure they understood a thing or two about what proper worship was because they had witnessed their parents worship worship the Lord.

So they both bring their offerings, but God looks upon Abel’s as satisfactory and looks at Cain’s as unsatisfactory.

Some would suggest that it’s because Abel brought a blood offering.

Some would suggest it’s because Abel brought some of the first fruits, so to speak, of the first-born his offering was accepted… We need to pause a moment… That’s conjecture.

The text does not tell us that .

Genesis does not actually say that to us.

We need to be careful what we read into the text.

It’s not until we read the Hebrew writer’s account that the difference between the two offerings is brought into the light.

Gen 4:1-

4 Adama made love to his wifez Eve,a and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.b b She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forthc a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.c

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.d 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offeringe to the LORD.f 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portionsg from some of the firstborn of his flock.h

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.d 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offeringe to the LORD.f 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portionsg from some of the firstborn of his flock.h

I’m of the opinion that the material of the offering is not important… Our emphasis needs to be the heart.

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

We must do the right things with the right attitude....

I can easily fall into doing the right things with a bad attitude.... Cain’s problem was not his offering, it was his attitude.

Look at

You can get the sacrifice right, but if you have a wicked… unbelieving heart, the Lord detests it.

Maybe you recall the conversation between the prophet Samuel and King Saul.

God, through Samuel, told Saul that he was to wipe out the Amalekites.

He was to destroy everything… After the battle Samuel comes to Saul and asks him if he did what the Lord commanded and Saul was like… “yep, I gotter done!” Samuel responds, “Really?

Then why do I keep hearing baaah, baaah…?”

Saul’s like, “Oh, that.

Well, I kept some of the the sheep so that I could sacrifice them to the Lord”.

To which Samuel responds in 1 Samuel 15:22...

WHY?

Because in his obedience he is exemplifying faith in the One who told him to do what he told him to do, instead of taking things into his own hands.

Here’s what we know about Cain and Abel.

Abel came in faith, he did the right thing with the right heart.

Cain did not come in faith.

He might of brought the right thing, but he didn’t bring it with the right heart.