Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

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Happy New Year.

Welcome to 2019.

Last week we remembered God’s Word and rejoiced in God’s work in our lives in 2018.

How many of you made New Year Resolutions?

(Wow).

If you didn’t make any resolutions I have a few for you.

· Possible New Year Resolutions

Every year I resolve to not eat “mushrooms” so I’m going with that again in 2019.

Why?

For starters, mushrooms are disgusting, and that’s the only reason we really need.

Generally, I’m able to keep this resolution the whole year, the only danger is pizza and the potlucks.

As we make resolutions for the New Year – all of these personal goals and commitments for change in 2019 – I’m want us to consider a “resolution” for us as a church family.

If you were going to have us make “resolutions” as a congregation what would they be?

What would be good New Year Resolutions for us a church family?

Does anything come to mind?

(Share – good) I would want us to resolve as a church family to know the greatness of Jesus in our lives.

Need

There are a lot of great things we encounter in life—the birth of a child, a promotion with an increase in salary, the completion of a degree, a dream vacation, a Cowboys playoff win, 50th wedding anniversary, and somewhere we encounter the greatness of Jesus.

I’m concerned that in the midst of our life, our encounter with the greatness of Jesus can be minimized (narrowed) to the day He saved, in that moment He was great and your life revolved around Him.

We can be distracted from encountering Jesus’ greatness in our daily lives.

We can be discouraged from encountering Jesus’ greatness on a daily basis.

Our hearts can be tempted to drift away from Jesus, our hearts can be tempted to doubt the greatness of Jesus, our hearts can begin to stagnate in spiritual immaturity, our hearts can become disobedient, and our hearts can refuse to listen to God.

In the midst of such temptation and threat, we need to be reminded of Jesus’ greatness.

In the midst of discouragement and despair that tempts us to drift, live in unbelief, compromise, coast, and disobey, we need to encouraged to press on and encounter the greatness of Jesus.

This is what was needed for a group of Christians living in the first century, and this is true for us as Christians today.

Preview

To that end, we begin a new series through the book of HEBREWS: “Encountering the Greatness of Jesus.”

Take your Bible and turn to the NT book of Hebrews.

If you have your Bible (I hope you do), please turn (click) to the NT book of Hebrews.

IF you don’t have a bible feel free to grab one in the pew rack in front of you and follow along as we begin our six-month journey through this incredible book.

Hebrews is located towards the end of the NT (after Philemon and before James).

You’ll also find a “Sermon Notes” section in the bulletin if you want to use them in this study.

Today we’re going to begin our Sunday morning sermons series in HEBREWS.

We’ll begin with an “OVERVIEW” of the overall book as a foundation, and then turn our focus to the opening section of the book with reveals that Jesus is GREATER THAN THE PROPHETS.

I) AN OVERVIEW OF HEBREWS

We begin our journey through this book with an “Overview” of Hebrews.

Every time we preach through a book from beginning to end we want to have a solid understanding of the book as a whole before we dig into the details (sections).

I suspect there are some of you here this morning that have studied Hebrews, some of you are familiar with parts of Hebrews, and perhaps some of you have never read Hebrews (anyone?).

· What do you know about Hebrews?

· What do you want to know about Hebrews?

I’m excited for us to walk through this book together.

The book of Hebrews is a challenging book.

· Chuck Swindoll - “The letter to the Hebrews is not bedside reading.

Profound and deep, it requires mental energy and spiritual motivation to grasp its contents.”

We’ll give ourselves to that task as we work our way through this book.

My hope is that we will increase our biblical literacy (you’ll walk away having a solid understanding of the message, outline, and key parts of the book), that what we learn will be applied and lived out in our lives, and that we would encounter the greatness of Jesus anew and afresh as a church so that we’ll persevere in our commitment to Him.

Let’s turn our attention to our brief “Overview” of Hebrews that will serve as the foundation of our study.

Author ~ God

God is the “Author” of this letter to the Hebrews for reminds us that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so the man of God may be adequate, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I always want to affirm our belief that this is God’s Word—it was God-breathed—meaning it originated with God as He spoke through men to record His Word.

It’s authoritative!

It’s profitable for us to study it for by it we are instructed, reproved, corrected, and trained as followers of Jesus Christ.

Penman ~ ?

How about the penman?

God is the author but who was the penman?

Who wrote the book of Hebrews by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Typically we find a “penman” identified in the opening section of NT letters but that’s missing in Hebrews.

Unlike many other New Testament writings, the author does not identify himself in the opening statement of the book.

A study of Hebrews begins with a bit of tension.

Throughout history, scholars and layman alike have been unable to state with complete confidence “who” penned the book of Hebrews.

Many different suggestions about authorship have been defended.

Let’s look at four of the main views that have been proposed.

· Priscilla and Aquilla

Their “instruction to Apollos, they were associated with Timothy; they were host and hostess in Rome; the transition back and forth from “we” and “I” would be suitable for a married couple; and the disappearance of the author’s name from the memory of the church could be explained by the same anti-feminist tendency of the Western Text.” (F.F.

Bruce, NICNT, The Epistle to the Hebrews, xi) A second option is

Barnabas

He was a Levite which could explain the strong emphasis of the Levitical system, he was called the “son of Encouragement” in and the book has a heavy emphasis on exhortation (13:22).

Apollos

Luther presented a relatively strong argument for Apollos as the author because of his reputation of being a man of eloquence and his vast knowledge of the Scriptures ().

During the Reformation Calvin suggested that Luke or Clement of Rome.

· Paul

Many believe Paul was the author.

Homer A Kent Jr. wrote “by far the most prominent candidate is the apostle Paul.

(Kent, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 17).

Clement of Alexandria suggested that Paul wrote the book in Hebrew and Luke translated it in Greek.

Support of Pauline authorship is found in the reference to Timothy in (Paul was associated with Timothy throughout his ministry) and the emphasis on the Israel and the new covenant.

Still, there is overwhelming evidence that argues against Pauline authorship.

First, there is no personal identification of himself in the opening of the letter (a normal Pauline trademark), the style of writing isn’t consistent with Paul, and the exclusive use of quotations from the Septuingant, and in “ the writer appears to place himself outside of the Apostlolic band.

(Toussaint, Class notes on Hebrews, 1).

There remains no undeniable evidence for who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews.

F.F. Bruce’s best attempt at framing an author is found in his statement: “The author was a second generation Christian, well versed in the study of the Septuagint, was a master of a fine rhetorical style…a Hellenist (Greek?)….we might well describe him as a “learned man….mighty in the scriptures.

(Bruce, NICNT, Hebrews, xlii).

Audience – Jewish Christians in Rome

Indentifying the recipients of this letter is important because it is foundational to understanding the purpose of the book.

The letter fails to identify its readers as being Jews or Gentiles but it must be noted that this is not a circular letter or a general Epistle.

It is identified as the Epistle to the Hebrews which suggests that it is addressed to a specific audience in a specific location.

The book is distinctively Jewish in nature.

The letter implies that they are Jewish Christians (Hebrew).

We discover at the close of the book Christians in Italy wanted to send their greetings to these believers ().

The letter highlights that the recipients were enduring great persecution ().

It seems most plausible that the epistle was sent to Jewish Christians living in Rome.

Date ~ A.D. 62-64

The book of Hebrews was probably written very early.

We know that Clement of Rome’s usage of Hebrews pushes the date of writing before A.D. 95.

The implication that the Jewish sacrificial system was still in place pushes the date before the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70.

It appears the book was written before Nero launched widespread Christian persecution in A.D. 64.

The reference to Timothy () argues for a relatively early date.

It seems safe to suggest that a date in the “early sixties accords well with the data available” (Kent, Epistle to the Hebrews, 27) and “a date of 62 suits fairly well.”