Sermon Tone Analysis

*Hebrews 12:1-2a…* Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus…

 

*Commentary*

“Therefore” in 12:1 draws on the previous context regarding the heroes of the faith – those who went before and who were models of what it means to be “certain of things hoped for and convicted of things not seen” (Heb.

11:1).

These dead heroes of the faith surround the living saints of God as “witnesses” that God uses imperfect people who simply believe His word.

Now though they “surround” modern saints they are not said to be spectators or fans who cheer the living on to victorious Christian living.

The modern Christian ought not assume that Noah, David, and Samson are looking down with approval.

On the contrary, the Christian’s audience is God, and pleasing Him is the only thing that matters.

He is indeed watching.

Dead saints gone before merely witness to faith and hope.

Their stories are for the encouragement of all those who come after them (Rom.

15:4).

One of the best ways to develop endurance and encouragement is to get to know the godly men and women of the Old Testament who ran their race and won.

The Christian life in 12:1 is likened unto a race.

The Greek word for race is /agon/ from which English derives “agony.”

It has to do with a struggle or a fight.

And that’s what the Christian walk is!

It is a demanding, grueling struggle that takes “endurance” in order to remain in the race.

Endurance is about patience and perseverance, for the Christian race isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Like long-distance running, the Christian life is a life of discipline, self-control, and determination.

This was the exhortation the audience of Hebrews needed, for they had grown weary of their trials and of awaiting the promised return of Christ.

The author gives three solutions for his audience to get them back in the race.

First, they were to “lay aside every encumbrance.”

This would entail getting rid of anything that would weigh them down.

First century games were for men only, and they ran footraces naked in order to keep clothing from hindering them.

Second, they were to put aside “the sin which so easily entangles.”

Of course the sin of the Hebrews was their unbelief, and that is the worst sin of all because it “entangles” – literally controls, constricts, and obstructs.

Finally, they were to fix their eyes on Jesus.

In a footrace a track star looks at one thing: the finish line.

If they take their eyes off of it to look at their feet or their fellow competitors they could stumble and lose speed.

So too for the Christian who is to look to Jesus Christ alone as the goal.

When the focus is on Jesus then the focus isn’t selfish.

But when the focus is lost Christians stumble (cf.

Peter in Matt.

14:28-31).

*Food for Thought*

If you’re in agony today from the Christian race, good!

Your perseverance is heroic, for you not only endure your struggles, you also contend for the faith just like those saints who went before you.

Keep running, keep breathing, and keep drinking your water (prayer, study, etc.).

The Christian race isn’t won whereby others are beaten, per se; rather, the reward is for a strong and steady finish, a faithful life.

To attain it we must believe and look to the future – to Christ.

What encumbers you to run your race faithfully?

Too much TV?

No discipline?

Too busy of a schedule?

Lay those aside, and get it together!

What sin entangles you?

Selfishness?

Sexual sins?

Pride?

The love of money?

Repent of that and get back in the race!

The bottom line is that your focus is not on Christ.

That basically sums up every single problem we face in our selfish little world today.

We are busy looking at ourselves, jealous of others, and too caught up in worldly things to even glance at Jesus.

Make it right today!

Put it all aside, and look to Christ.

*Hebrews 12:1b-2*… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

* *

*Commentary*

Some Christians forget that they’re in a race and what that race is all about.

It’s possible that no one ever really told them what the Christian race was.

This is common today in churches where preachers take the focus off of Jesus Christ and obedience to him by not teaching from the Bible.

The Hebrews audience had forgotten Jesus, and that’s why the author hammers through 11 chapters of Christ’s superiority.

One wonders why true Christians would need this, but the answer is that even true Christians fall down and don’t get back up until someone helps them.

The audience had fallen down and were out of the Christian race it seems.

So he picked them up by preaching OT Scripture throughout to encourage their renewed participation in the race.

Since any Christian can lose his~/her focus it is essential to call that focus back to Jesus Christ.

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

So once the focus is back on Christ, a strong stride to the finish line is a given.

To encourage bringing the focus back to Jesus, who he was had to be recalled.

He’s the “the author and perfecter of faith.”

Now since Jesus is the “author” of faith, he originated Abel’s faith and Noah’s faith – men who lived thousands of years before him.

He pioneered their faith, having existed even in their day.

But he also perfected it.

Jesus was actually the one in whom Abel and the others looked to with great faith and hope – that which was unseen to them but which they believed nonetheless.

Jesus completed his work when he died saying, “It is finished!”

(John 19:30), and he perfected it by being resurrected from the death.

In the process of completing and perfecting the faith that was delivered once for all to the saints, Jesus, “for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame.”

Jesus went to the cross for the sake of the future joy his death would bring to many.

Like those OT saints who looked to the future to find joy and peace in God’s promise to them, Jesus too looked not at the cross but /beyond/ the cross.

He looked through the cross to the future joy his death would bring to those children of his who would be saved by his death.

But Jesus “despised its shame” in that he thought so little of the torture of the cross that he looked past it.

This fits with what the author just told the audience about fixing their gaze upon Jesus, for in doing so they would look past the pain and agony the Christian life had brought them amidst their pagan God-hating world.

So Jesus saw past the pain of the cross to the joy of the outcome and the fulfillment of God’s promises, and once he completed his work and was resurrected “he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The perfect tense of “sat down” signifies a permanent and lasting result, for the Greek tense concerns a past and completed event with future results.

And this is exactly what the OT faithful looked for.

Jesus modeled what they looked for and what they will attain.

They looked past their circumstances and saw the future joy of God’s fulfilled promises just like Jesus looked past the pain of the cross and saw the joy of his resurrection.

And just like Jesus, when those OT saints are resurrected, they too will fully realize the final result of their faith: eternal salvation.

Jesus modeled it, and they saw it by faith before it ever even happened.

*Food for Thought*

            All that matters in this world is looking at Jesus Christ.

He made everything perfect, and all we must do is look past this imperfect and sinful world to Christ.

If you’re struggling today it’s because you’re not looking to Jesus.

Seek Him first, and see if God doesn’t take care of you.

*Hebrews 12:3-4… *For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.

* *

*Commentary*

The verb “consider” in v. 3 is an accounting term.

It means “to reckon; to sum up; to calculate.”

It’s as if the author, after having spent 11 chapters doing side-by-side comparisons of Jesus and Judaism, is reconciling his report like an accountant with a spreadsheet.

He’s telling the audience to calculate their knowledge of Christ over and against their own tribulations and make a decision about getting back into the Christian race.

In calculating Jesus, all readers of the Epistle of Hebrews, both then and now, must consider “Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself.”