Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in the final chapter of Hebrews!

Congratulations for hanging around with us for this long.

The book of Hebrews has been a challenging, but rewarding journey through the Gospel according to the Jewish mind.

None of us come from the Jewish background that this audience did.

This is why it presented us with additional challenges along the way.

So, it is my hope that our journey has opened the door to understanding this at a new level.

Today, the book of Hebrews brings us a very different note from what we have been talking about.

As I said last week, the author brought to us a summarizing picture of two mountains.

One mountain was superior to the other.

It was a summary of all of the concepts to this point.

In essence, it was the end of the teaching of this book.

Much of this book has been explanatory.

However, today the author brings us some exhortations.

Define Exhortation:

It means to come alongside someone and strongly urge them to moral growth.

It is written in the sense of compassion, not judgment.

The end of Hebrews gives us a series of exhortations.

Some we will tackle today, and we will finish them up.

It is a change of pace for this book because the book has been all about learning and explaining.

It has been very theological and giving theological understanding.

But now, that theology meets action.

You can believe all the right things about Jesus, but if it doesn’t translate into action, you have missed the point of theology.

My understanding of theology is that it brings lifechange.

Pray

As we go into these exhortations, I want to remind you of the context.

We will pull into this the context we are familiar with.

But once again, our context is not their context.

They were beginning to feel the pressure of persecution as both Jews and Christians.

Earlier it says that they have not yet suffered to the point of shedding their own blood.

This means that they had begun suffering, but also, it was not to the level it would be.

In fact, to step back, this church was about to experience complete and total rejection by the world.

The author under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is writing this to prepare them for what was to come.

They may have been just a normal church experiencing normal things.

But, things would not remain normal for long.

This is a forward looking book.

Yes they had experienced suffering.

They probably wanted some comfort for the suffering they had endured.

But they did not receive comfort.

They received instructions and preparation for the future.

This is the definition of discipline that we talked about a few weeks ago.

There is a reality that we must remember:

God prepares us for battle before sending us into battle

In this preparation, these exhortations give practical instructions of things they would need to remember, not just in their current situation of moderate suffering, but into the reality of intense persecution that was to come.

Exhortation #1- Keep on loving one another

In this first exhortation, I think it speaks very strongly as an encouragement, and an exhortation.

Notice it does not say, “Start loving one another” It says “Keep on loving one another”

This is something this church was already living out.

This is the encouragement

But the exhortation is riding right behind it: Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.

This language is a theme that is carried through this book.

We are brothers and sisters with each other.

But most importantly, we are in Christ.

It is not in each other that we find our distinction.

It is in Christ that we find our identity and distinction.

Our church is great.

We have nice people and everything, but that is not what makes RLN great!

It is Jesus.

That is why we are connected.

We are not connected on anything else, except the eternal.

Because of this, we are commanded to love one another.

If it was easy and natural, it wouldn’t be something that needed to be commanded.

But, we need the reminder to love one another.

In the face of suffering, it would be easy to become divisive, blaming, wanting to fight battles that didn’t need to be fought.

It would be easy to take your eyes off of Jesus and the eternal and focus on the temporary things, like a government who might break in the door at any moment and arrest, beat, or kill the Christians in the room.

They would need to remember to love

This becomes a theme for the next few exhortations.

Exhortation #2- Show hospitality

This is an exciting and mysterious verse!

We usually don’t even think of the exhortation.

Rather we think about the angels.

I’ve heard fantastic stories about someone who pulled over to help someone and they disappeared after receiving help.

Was it an angel?

I have no idea.

I don’t think the idea here is that God is randomly throwing angels into our lives to test our hospitality.

This book starts with the topic of angels and how Jesus is superior to angels.

However, angels are still real and important.

Here is what the Jewish mind would think when this verse was written.

There is one instance in the Bible where someone was hospitable, and it ended up being angels.

This is the story of Abraham and Sarah.

The story can be found in Genesis 18.

I am not going to turn there, but I’ll give you the idea.

Abraham was sitting around his tent and saw three strangers.

He got up, washed their feet, gave them food and water and honored them as guests.

These men ended up being angels sent by God giving the message that Abraham and Sarah would soon become pregnant with a baby.

Abraham didn’t know these guys, but he acted with hospitality.

This exhortation about showing hospitality is a look back to Abraham’s example.

You don’t know who the strangers in your life are.

Treat people like they are sent by God.

This is an extension of the first exhortation of loving one another.

That command says to love others within the body of believers.

This command is pointed at showing love to those who are outside the body of believers.

This is going to get somewhat personal soon, so be ready.

Exhortation #3- Remember those in prison

Exhortation #4- Remember the mistreated

This is where we need to begin taking the context of this passage in account.

Is this a passage that says, “You should begin a jail ministry and visit them?”

That is not what this verse brings to the table.

This is a church in persecution.

Believers were being arrested, jailed, beaten, and in some cases having their property, homes and jobs taken from them.

We might think that sounds extreme.