Sermon Tone Analysis

Review

We left off a couple of weeks ago by looking at the whole idea of faith.

Not just simple faith, but the kind of faith that God requires.

The kind of faith that is so certain and so powerful that it moves you to action.

We were discussing this faith as it related to what the Hebrew believers were enduring.

While we don’t know what specific town or region these believers were in we do know that they must have been facing persecution by a particularly antagonistic community of Jews.

I’m sure they were being mocked and ridiculed and even persecuted for having forsake the Temple where God promised to meet with His people.

They were looked upon as fools.

To God be the Glory

You see, in a sense these Jews were right.

After all, the Temple is the very place that God had set up to meet with His people.

This was to be the very place where the tangible evidence of His existence was to be made manifest.

The Shekinah glory appeared first when he was delivering the nation of Israel from the Egyptians when it manifest as a pillar of smoke by day and fire by night.

It later appear to them on Mount Sinai when the voice of God thundered from the mountain.

It was manifest when it came to rest in the Tent of Meeting, and eventually the Temple.

It was maintained by the animal sacrifices that were made by the priests.

If you were not a believer in the Messiah, you would of course believe that these people were fools for forsaking the glory of God.

How big of a deal was the glory?

Well, the whole purpose of man is to bring God glory.

Rav.

Paul says it like this:

In fact the very essence of the spiritual warfare that we talked bout last week is this.

While God designed us to bring Him the Glory, the aim of ha satan is to rob him of the Glory that is due Him.

Worship is all about our ability to perceive the glory of God and render the praise and honor and glory that He merits.

We are unable to live up to the level of spiritual maturity to which God has called us without a full, vibrant and dynamic lifestyle of praise and worship without giving God the glory that is His.

Saints, can you see why this was such a big deal for them?

They needed the reassurance that what they were doing was right.

They did not want to live in disobedience to God, yet they could not yet fully comprehend that everything that was done in the Torah and the Prophets, all of the traditions that they had been observing were point toward the time in which they were now living.

They had been observing all of those feasts and performing all of those sacrifices as a rehearsal for the day that those prophetic types would be fulfilled in Messiah.

Up until this time, the writer of Hebrews had been addressing the superiority of Jesus in terms of how it related to the Aaronic priesthood, having made his case for the superiority of Christ’s ministry and the perfection of the sacrificial system by His crucifixion.

But there still remained the issue of the Glory of God.

A Greater Glory

The writer of Hebrews having just explained that salvation came by faith and not mere robotic obedience to the Temple rituals, lists out the Faith Hall of Fame to drive his point home.

And this is where he transitions into the glory of God.

He says basically, “Look, I’ve just listed out this great cloud of witnesses whose lives testify to the goodness of God, who endured hardships and who died, many before seeing the fulfilment of His promises in their lives.

Nevertheless, they believed in a reality not yet seen.

Take their example and don’t lose heart, don’t grow weary.”

How to Endure

The Author then goes on to give them some encouragement on how to endure.

Do Not Despise Discipline

He says, first of all, while you are enduring a great deal of persecution, you haven’t done so to the point of bloodshed - yet.

In other words, as bad as it seems, it’s not really all that bad.

And then he goes on to encourage them by reminding them that the difficulties that we face as believers can be embraced as a blessing because we are sons and daughters of God.

And a good Father chastens his children whom he loves.

A good example of this is that when Elisha was a very young child, he was very difficult.

He was headstrong and very rambunctious - naughty you might say.

It wasn’t until we found out that he had autism that we knew why he was so challenging.

After praying about it, we heard from the Lord that we were not to spare our discipline simply because of his diagnosis.

To the contrary - we saw how many other children with autism were so out of control that we realized we had to do something.

Now let me ask you a question.

Does the word of God contain disciplinary exceptions for kids with developmental disabilities?

In fact, God told us that we needed to take a very firm stance with him and insist that he bring his behavior in check.

As a result, he no longer has meltdowns, he is able to self soothe, and he has become one of the greatest kids ever.

So much so, that all of his teachers constantly rave about his great behavior.

Saints, it was sometimes a struggle.

It would have been very easy to just let him have his way.

It was often very heartbreaking to butt heads with him, but we persisted because we love him.

We persisted because we knew that we could mete discipline out with love today because some day he was going to have to face this world and face discipline that would not be so loving.

We wanted to make sure that he could not just survive in society, but that he could thrive.

And so although there was much screaming and many meltdowns, and a few paddled butts, there was always abundant love.

Likewise, the author of Hebrews says:

Just like it wasn’t pleasant for us to discipline Elisha, for him or us, the discipline of God is not pleasant either, but it is “for our profit thta we may be partakers of His holiness.”

Become a Minister of Peace

The writer then asks the Hebrews to perform a introspective evaluation of themselves, and take inventory of any weaknesses they may have as revealed by these times of chastisement, and to address them.

And then he drops this bombshell on therm:

I chose this translation because it translates from the Greek back to Hebrew because these were Hebrew believers, and the very first copy of this Epistle would most certainly have been in Hebrew.

This translation uses the word Shalom.

Shalom means more than just peace.

When we think of peace, we think of the absence of strife or war.

We think of quiet and with think of a cessation of sorts.

Shalom can be just as easily be translated as “harmony” which is not passive, but rather active.

It is not diminutive, meaning it doesn’t cease, rather it denotes living a life that is arranged in harmony with your circumstances and in this case with the people around you.

To live in shalom doesn’t mean, live and let live, it means to live and help live by adding your unique role to the equation.

And that is proved out by the verse, it doesn’t just say don’t fight, but rather “see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God” but more than that, it is active in one other thing, the disciple says that living in shalom also means we guard ourselves against bitterness and trouble because this leads us to the third principle of endurance.

Keep Good Company

We’ve all heard the phrase “bad company corrupts good character” and this is what the writer of Hebrews is saying here.

He says, “Hey people like Esau - Godless and immoral people.

They lack the ability to see the bigger picture, they lack the ability to see God in a situation, and when they finally do see it, it’s too late.

It’s usually after they’re suffering the circumstances of the decisions.

Stay away from them.

A Return to the Mountain

Hebrews chapter 12 closes out with a return to a mountain with the glory of God.

Just like mount Sinai of old.

Let’s revisit that for a second shall we?

The Glory of God thundered from Sinai and God gave the Ten Words, or as we know them, “the Ten Commandments” the people quaked and trembled before the glory of God.

This was a day that lived in the collective memory of the children Israel and this is what they were clinging to through their Temple worship, and so the author of Hebrews speaks directly to that.

He is wrapping it all together for them here saints!

Can you capture the glory of what He’s saying?

We have access to this amazing mountain of God where His presence dwells continually.

IT is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the very city where the angels live!

And then what is the final warning that he gives them?

“Look at the example of our forefathers, DO NOT make the same mistake that they did!

Do not turn your back on the One who is speaking!”

Saints, we often think that the nature of God is way different in the Old Testament than He is in the New.

In the Old He seems cranky and in the new, many people see a reformed God one that is kinder and gentler.”

I don’t.

I see a Holy God in the Old Testament one that demands things be done His way, and I see an even more insistent God given the magnitude of the price that was paid for our righteousness.

Putting it All Together

We server a Glorious God.

A God that still shakes the heavens and the Earth with his awesome voice.