Sermon Tone Analysis
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Story:
-A famous missionary who lived quite a while ago was famous for being a bold Gospel witness
-He was miraculously converted even though before his salvation he hate Christianity
-God graciously intervened, brought him from death to life, and changed his life completely
-This man immediately started sharing the Gospel with everyone he knew and showing them that Christ is the only way to God
-He lived in an area of the world, however, that was very dangerous for Christians to live in
-So he had to flee where he was living because of threats on his life
-He began a pattern in his life of being sent out of a church, and then travelling all over the region and beyond sharing the Gospel and planting churches
-Along the way, he was persecuted often for his faith
-He was beaten numerous times for his faith
-He was shipwrecked more than once
-And even on one occasion, he was stoned and left for dead
-None of this deterred him, however, from his goal of making Christ known
-He famously wrote this in one of his letters:
-And through the ages, this has been the battle cry of Christians, missionaries, and martyrs throughout the ages
-Today, we’re going to talk about the concept of not being ashamed, but probably not in a way you’ve ever heard preached before
Intro:
We don’t know who authored the book of Hebrews
-The debate has gone on over the millenia, and we will never know for sure
-Whoever it was though was known by the church he was writing to
-This man was a powerful and eloquent expositor of the OT
-It seems he was probably writing to a Jewish audience that was living outside of the Jerusalem area
-This group had come under persecution at some point
-They were persecuted and hated probably by both Gentiles and their fellow Jews
-There seems to be a danger of apostasy
-Let’s go back to Judaism! to the glories of Moses, the Priesthood, the sacrifices, the Old Covenant
-And the writer’s main theme to encourage and warn them not to go back is:
Jesus is better!
Last week we looked at how Jesus is the perfect man
-He completely fulfills everything humanity is supposed to be
-He was made lower than the angels for a short period of time to taste death for everyone
-He was crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death
-And all things will be placed under His dominion in the world to come
Which brings us to our text for today
**Read Text**
Now, I’m going to work through this text a little backwards
-I’m going to show you where the author of Hebrews ends up
-Then, we’re going to turn that into a question and look at WHY the author ends up where he does
So we’ve got basically a 2 part sermon: the WHAT part (what the premise of our author is), and the WHY or HOW part (how he got to this conclusion)
-Sound good?
Look at the end of verse 12:
notice the “for which reason”
-This is where he’s gonna end up!
-The point of these verses is: Jesus is not ashamed to call us as Christians his brothers!
-Now, before we go on any further, let’s just recognize what an amazing truth this is!
-Jesus, is not ashamed to call you and I His brothers and sisters
-Have you ever been with someone that you were kinda ashamed to be with
-Have your kids or spouse ever embarrassed you in public
-I remember being in Walmart, and waiting in line . . .
(tell story)
-Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters!
Now, like any good expositor, this wonderful preacher of the Word, the author of Hebrews, is going to give proof of what he’s saying with Scripture
-So he’s going to go to the Old Testament to show that what he says is in the Bible
And he goes to 2 separate OT texts
The first text is Psalm 22)
-Now, Psalm 22 is one of the most quoted texts of the OT in the NT
-It is very very Messianic and speaks of the Messiah in His agony and rejection
See if you can see some of why it is such a Messianic Psalm:
-So we can see here that the Psalm is Messianic, and that it is completely normal and in line for NT writers to attribute this Psalm to Christ
-So, the author goes to Psalm 22:22) to show that Christ claims us as His brothers!
-In the midst of the agony that is going on, He is going to proclaim the name of Yahweh to His brothers, and praise Him
Now, the next passage is a little harder to connect to the point the author of Hebrews is trying to make
He goes to Isaiah 8)
-In Isaiah 8, Isaiah is dealing with the coming threat of Assyria bearing down on them
-On top of that, he’s dealing with the rejection of wicked king Ahaz at the time
-Isaiah has 2 children with his wife, and he names them names that prophecy:
-1 means “speeding to the plunder, hurrying to the spoil”
-the other means “the remnant shall return”
-So the names are given as messages, one of judgment and another of hope
-And it’s in this context that Isaiah pens the verses that are quoted in Hebrews:
-Now, as I’m reading through this and meditating on it, I’m wondering: how is it that the author of Hebrews can attribute these words to Jesus
-How does that work?
Here are a couple of thoughts as to why this works:
The author starts out his book with Hebrews 1:1
So the author sees the prophets and Christ as being in the same line: the line of God speaking to men
-So it is not inappropriate for the author of Hebrews to see Christ speaking here
2. This passage is already thought of as Messianic in other places in the NT.
Isaiah 8:14
So this passage already has Messianic overtones
3. I believe the author here also sees Isaiah as a type of Christ in some ways:
-In the same way that Isaiah was a prophet ordained by God, rejected by his people, yet still hoping in God and encouraging his fellow remnant
-Christ is the ultimate prophet, rejected by His people, yet still putting His hope in God and leading the remnant of God’s people
It’s not an accident that Jesus goes into the synagogue, reads the words of Isaiah in chapter 61, and says “today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing”
It’s not an accident that John has a lengthy section in John 12 where he connects the rejection of Jesus to what was written about the ministry that Isaiah would endure
So it’s for these reasons that He quotes from Isaiah 8)
Now, he divides the Isaiah quote into 2 separate quotes to make 2 different points of emphasis
-The first quote doesn’t seem to fit with the other two, since it mentions no familial connection between Jesus and us as Christians
-So why does He quote “I will put My trust in Him”?
Well, it’s because of Jesus putting His trust in God in the midst of hardship and rejection that gives us this familial relationship with Christ
-Christ suffered willingly the rejection and cruelty of men, and put His trust in God by going to the cross, knowing God would vindicate Him
The second quote returns to the familial relationship connection, showing Jesus associating Himself with us
-Here, He refers to His people as His children
So where the author arrives at the end of this section is:
Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers!
-He’s not ashamed to associate with us sinful, weak human beings!
-Not ashamed!
We are His brothers
So the question we’ve now got to answer is:
Why is Jesus not ashamed to call us His brothers?
Part 2: The Why
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