Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Illumine our hearts and minds, we pray, O Lord, by the light of your holy Gospel; and grant that in the midst of the tumult and the clamor of the voices that fall on our ears, and seek to call us away from you, we may discern that clear voice of our Master, your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and faithfully heed him alone.

AMEN.

Intro

So today the church’s lectionary has providentially set before us, a passage of Scripture that is considered by many a personal favorite.

And I believe rightly so.

The author of Hebrews encourages his readers, that is both his original audience and us, in our faith.

And we rightfully rejoice in considering this long list of faithful saints who have gone before us and have shown us – so beautifully – what a faith filled life looks like.

But before you and I rush to the conclusion that we’ve covered our bases and that we understand what this passage of Scripture is telling us; I would suggest that we need to pause and sit with this text.

Yes, absolutely, we are exhorted to faith here… to rest in faith.

But the question that we need to ask is why?

What is it that Hebrews is trying to get us to see?

To get this, we need to begin with a bit of history.

But, don’t worry, there won’t be any quizzes!

Looking within the text of Hebrews itself we come to know that at this time there was a persecution that had been taking place against the Christians.

In Ch. 10, v. 32-33, the author writes to his audience “you endured a hard struggle with sufferings… being publicly exposed to ridicule and persecution.”

But he doesn’t stop there, the author continues in v. 34: “you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.”

So, we immediately see just within the epistle to the Hebrews that this is a people who have gone through a great trial.

But we also know many additional details from ancient history.

For instance: “The Roman historian Suetonius records that the Jews were ‘constantly indulging in riots due to the introduction of the message about Christ… into the Jewish community.”

And this was not a one-time event… no, for instance, roughly 10-15 years earlier than the time period that Suetonius was writing about we find in “Acts 18:2 the mention of two Jewish Christians, Priscilla and Aquila, who were amongst the Jews expelled from the capital by the Emperor Claudius in ad49.”[1]

So, persecution is the immediate event that was causing a problem.

But that is not the end of it.

The whole reason that Hebrews was written, was not simply because Christians were being persecuted and to encourage them.

Hebrews was written to formerly Jewish Christians because, due to them being persecuted, they were thinking of leaving their Christian faith and going back to Judaism, where they believed they would be safe from this persecution.

This is the whole reason Hebrews was written: that is, persecution which was leading people to want to return to a safer more comfortable way… and this sets the theme that we will explore today.

So having explored some of this background, we should get a quick overview of what is happening in the portion of Hebrews that we have read today.

I see within our Scripture passage three distinct movements:

· First, the author gives us a definition of faith.

· Next, he gives us 6 examples of faith, found in the Old Testament patriarchs.

· Finally, based on these examples, the author then exhorts his readers to follow their example.

Definition of Faith

Now perhaps you are thinking – “Whoa!

Eric… slow down.

Didn’t we just hear you say that what we are going to be exploring as today’s theme, is leaving the Christian faith to become Jews!

How does that apply to us? We’re perfectly happy being Christians!”

And to that I would say, you are right.

This letter was written to a very different group of people, at a very different time.

Most of us here are neither Jewish Christians, nor have we faced any real or serious persecution, like that described in Hebrews, for believing in Jesus.

And yet, I would also point out that we still have much to learn from this letter.

This brings us to the definition of faith found in vv.

1-3.

There we find written that: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

For by it the people of old received their commendation.”

But this definition does not just drop out of nowhere.

We have to look back a few verses earlier in the end of chapter 10 to see what is happening.

There, the writer had quoted from the prophet Ha-ba-kuk 2:3-4: “…the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.

Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

See the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright; but the righteous person will live by his faith…”

Now why do I point us to this?

Because it reveals an important theme throughout the whole letter to the Hebrews.

And that is: because these Jewish Christians are thinking of leaving the Christian faith, they need to know what they are leaving.

And so, throughout the whole letter we find the author continually pointing out that what we have is “a better hope” (7:19) that is “more excellent” (8:6) because it is based on “better promises” (8:6)found in Christ Jesus.

New Testament scholar Dr. Thomas Schreiner points out that:

The word "better" plays a major role in Hebrews: Jesus is better than angels (1:4); Melchizedek is better than Abraham (7:7): Jesus brings in a "better hope" (7:19) and a "better covenant' (7:22; 8:6) because he offered "better sacrifices" (9:23); Jesus' blood is "better" than Abel's (12:24).

And fitting with this verse in particular, believers anticipate a "better possession" (10:34), and OT saints a "better resurrection" (11:35) and "something better" along with new covenant believers (11:40).

The better homeland is the "city" God has prepared for his people.

God is the builder of this city (11:10), and it is a heavenly city (12:22).

The earthly city of man forecasts a far better heavenly city, the city of God (13:14).[2]

And how does this apply to us?

I would point out that as we read this definition of faith in the first three verses of our reading today, we are challenged to consider what holds our loyalties!

Our reading points out that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

But what is it that we hope for and do not see?

And why do we need to hear this definition?

It seems right to note that though our circumstances are different than the audience of this letter, in other ways we encounter similar problems, just in different ways.

And the problem is our loyalties.

Think of it!

You and I may likely not be thinking of leaving our Christian faith for Judaism, but if we are honest with ourselves, we certainly have things in our lives that call out to us to … inviting us to turn back to them, and away from Christ.

Think for a moment what that could be? {pause} Perhaps it is a relationship that has begun overshadowing everything else in your life, or an political or cultural ideology that you can’t seem to stop thinking about, or perhaps a sin that you can’t seem to shake.

All of these when they become such extremes in our lives need to be named for what they are… that is they are idols, and an idol is in fact an object of worship, it turns our heads and hearts away from the only thing that is worthy of our worship… which is God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And now, having considered that hard truth, hear what the author of Hebrews invites you and me to.

We are invited here to remember the better “thing” …really the better person… that is Christ Jesus our Lord, and the adoption and kingdom of heaven that are ours in him.

And so, we hear Hebrews say to us: ““Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

That is, faith assures us of our hope in Christ Jesus our savior, and of the kingdom that is ours in him.

But it also challenges and changes us by pointing us constantly towards the better and more excellent things in him.

It challenges us to examine our hearts and to see where they are still clinging to lesser things – or even dangerous and sinful things.

Faith challenges us to hold good but lesser things in their right place, and to turn away from sinful things, so that they never take the place that God alone should have in our hearts.

And when faith does this, when faith sets the affections of our hearts in proper order, Hebrews goes on to tell us, looking to the example of the saints who have gone before us, that “by it the people of old received their commendation.”

That is, by faith God will achieve what he has set about doing in us through this gift of faith.

And when we listen to God’s call to remain faithful and cling to the way he sets before us, we do so also remembering that God has a prize set before us – just as any good parent rewards their children, because they love them – so as to encourage us.

Six Illustrations of Faith

But when we hear in v. 2 that “by [faith] the people of old received their commendation” Scripture is not only telling us what faith sets before us.

No, the author is also setting us up to consider the beauty of what faith does.

He is preparing us to consider faith at work in the lives of God’s people… by looking to those who have gone before us.

Isn’t that exactly what we need?!

Even though we have just heard that faith is “the conviction of things not seen,” we are still told here that we can see the effects of faith!

Indeed, we need to see this.

And that is what happens within the church through the ages… isn’t it!

Who of us here has not been encouraged in our faith by seeing what faith fully alive in an individual can look like.

Think about that!

Who in your life has either knowingly or unknowingly been an encouragement to you to dive deeply into relationship with Jesus Christ, to live out your faith in beautiful ways, to bear witness to the gospel so that others may come to have the joy and strength that you have found in your Christian faith!

Perhaps it was a youth pastor when you were a kid… or a friend or family member, or perhaps a co-worker, or even a total stranger.

Whoever it was it was in seeing their heart so aflame with love for Jesus that you longed to have what they had.

This could have been in little or great ways.

The important thing is that their heart was aflame by the working of the Holy Spirit.

For instance, I can look back to when I became a Christian.

At that time in my life I was struggling to make sense of Christian faith… earlier in my life I had been so scandalized by the terrible example of Christians I knew that I thought Christians were all a bunch of frauds.

But then, by God’s grace, and by the helpful example of some friends who were Christians and lived lives that bore witness to the beauty that faith can work in a person’s life, I was encouraged to take Christianity seriously.

And that is what the author of Hebrews is doing.

He is telling us to look back and see what faith looked like in the lives of our great ancestors in faith; and to let their example both encourage us as well as to spur us on to greater faithfulness.

In order to do this, we are now given six illustrations of faith.