Sermon Tone Analysis

Outline:

JMac titles His: RUN FOR YOUR LIFE :-)

I get a picture of running in fear!!!

Text: Hebrews 12:1-3

Title: Moving Forward In Your Faith

Big Idea: In order to move forward in your faith you must realize who you’re running with (cloud of witnesses), purge the sin that slows you down, and go hard after ultimate joy.

Intro: Where are you headed?

Forward?

Back?

Neutral?

In these few verses we see various aspects of the race, as they are compared to the faithful life in Christ: the event itself, encouragement to run, encumbrances to running, an Example to follow, the end or goal of the race, and a final exhortation.

In verses 1–2 he begins the chapter with the image of a race in order to exhort his hearers to “run with perseverance,” laying aside impediments to endurance and keeping a focus on Jesus as the pacesetter.

This metaphor of a race resumes briefly in verses 12–13, emphasizing especially the disciplined endurance required of a long-distance runner.

KOBE work ethic… Wanna win? Do that!

The one theme that runs through this chapter is endurance (Heb.

12:1 [“patience”], 2–3, 7; also see 10:32, 36 [“patience”]).

The Jewish believers who received this letter were getting weary and wanted to give up; but the writer encouraged them to keep moving forward in their Christian lives, like runners on a track (see Phil. 3:12–14).

He pointed out three divine resources that encourage a Christian to keep going when the situation is difficult.

The examples of faith in Hebrews 11 provide a solid basis for the exhortation, and the author gives three elements that may be understood as the means (or, perhaps, manner) of running the race well.

We are to run (1) throwing off all that hinders and sin, (2) by means of perseverance, and, especially, (3) fixing our eyes on Jesus.

The author understandably gives the last of these, the focus on Jesus, the greatest attention, since he has dedicated much of his book to building the hearers’ understanding of God’s Son.

It is Jesus who provides the ultimate basis for a Christian’s perseverance.

Unfortunately, many people are not even in the race, and many Christians could hardly be described as running the race at all.

Some are merely jogging, some are walking slowly, and some are sitting or even lying down.

Yet the biblical standard for holy living is a race, not a morning constitutional.

Race is the Greek agōn, from which we get agony.

A race is not a thing of passive luxury, but is demanding, sometimes grueling and agonizing, and requires our utmost in self-discipline, determination, and perseverance.

1. Pay attention to who you’re running with v.1a

This passage applies what was commanded in 10:36.

Don’t forget these people were unsure about moving forward for Jesus.

They were thinking of going back to an old way of life.

They were discouraged.

Some had given up.

Others were considering it.

So, in 10:36 the author commands us to endure so when we do what God loves/is pleased with (i.e.

His will), we will receive the promised reward.

Then in chapter 11 he gives example after example of people who lived by faith then 12:1 starts, THEREFORE… connecting us back… back to what?

I believe it’s 10:36… chapter 11 was fuel to encourage us to do what 10:36 commanded us to do and 12:1-3 tells us HOW to do.

The first part of the how is to pay attention to who you are running with.

If you are moving forward by faith you are rolling with the heroes of our faith APPLICATION: so, do the people you are with now encourage you to run as they did?

Who are you running with?

WE… Wow that is powerful!!!

YOU BETTER

No, “We”

We” links the writer to his readers.

He is a competitor in the race as well as they and writes as one who is as much caught up in the contest as they are.

The word “cloud” (nephos, only here in the NT) may be used of a mass of clouds in the sky (the more common nephelē means a single cloud).

But it is also used from time to time of a throng of people, when it emphasizes the number.

The witnesses are a vast host.

Race is like a RELAY…

He speaks of the runners as “surrounded,” which makes it hard to think of them as looking to the “witnesses” and all the more so since they are exhorted to keep their eyes on Jesus (v. 2).

Both ideas may be present.

Perhaps we should think of something like a relay race where those who have finished their course and handed in their baton are watching and encouraging their successors.

The word “witness” (martys) certainly can carry the meaning “spectator,” as in 1 Timothy 6:12, and “surrounded” (perikeimenon) brings to mind the ancient amphitheater with its tiered rows of seats.

However, the author intends more from this image than to conjure the faithful of the ages as passive spectators.

Rather, they are witnesses in the sense that they bear witness to the Christian community of God’s faithfulness and of the effectiveness of faith.

God has given witness to them (“commended” in 11:2, 39 is from a related word, the verb martyreo), and they, as examples, bear witness to him before succeeding generations.

In this way, the great cloud of faithful Christ-followers through history offer the community motivation in its current struggle to stay the course of commitment.

As F. F. Bruce notes, “It is not so much they who look at us as we who look to them—for encouragement.”

What is a witness?

The word “witnesses” does not mean “spectators.”

Our English word “martyr” comes directly from the Greek word translated “witness.”

These people are not witnessing what we are doing; rather, they are bearing witness to us that God can see us through.

God bore witness to them (Heb.

11:2, 4–5, 39) and they are bearing witness now to us.

They are the heroes of the faith.

It is not suggested here that these men and women now in heaven are watching us as we run the race, like people seated in a stadium.

Golfers, think what would happen to your concentration if Arnold Palmer joined your foursome!

Or imagine the adrenaline if while shooting some hoops, Michael Jordan appeared saying, “Mind if I join you?” Every ounce of “wanna be” in our mortal bodies would suddenly be on the court!

The presence of the pros, the Hall of Famers, is innately elevating.

I do not believe that the cloud of witnesses surrounding us is standing in the galleries of heaven watching as we perform.

The idea here is not that we should be faithful lest they be disappointed, or that we should try to impress them like a sports team trying to impress the fans in the bleachers.

These are witnesses to God, not of us.

They are examples, not onlookers.

They have proved by their testimony, their witness, that the life of faith is the only life to live.

Knowing someone can do something motivates us that it can be done… (4 minute mile… no one thought could be done… since then ____ have done it) Went and watched Raleigh Miler like 5 guys did it that night… It was cool but not historic.

Why franchises are appealing to business owners, proven track record… do these things because this is how it is done.

(McDonalds we all know it kills us, but someone is eating a billion burgers a day… why not just start your own?)

This is a very crucial transition word offering an emphatic conclusion (cf. 1 Thess.

4:8) to the section which began in 10:19.

witnesses.

The deceased people of chap.

11 give witness to the value and blessing of living by faith.

Motivation for running “the race” is not in the possibility of receiving praise from “observing” heavenly saints.

Rather, the runner is inspired by the godly examples those saints set during their lives.

The great crowd are not comprised of spectators but rather are ones whose past life of faith encourages others to live that way (cf.

11:2, 4, 5, 33, 39).

Could tell about running Mansfield.

Just follow that guy… I ran mid distance… now run a marathon talking to everyone… making friends, then it wasn’t about friends… bumping nudging… spikes hit you...

(Areseneo Hall) Saw an interview with Mike Tyson and Mohammed Ali… asked if Ali in Prime who wins???

Tyson recognized greatness (who you are running with)

“Witnesses” can function as those watching a race (“cloud” was often applied figuratively to a crowd), but the particular witnesses here are those who testified for God or received his testimony that they were righteous (11:2, 4, 5, 39).

“Laying aside weights” (KJV) may refer to removing artificial weights used in training but not in races, but more likely it refers to the Greek custom of stripping off clothes to run unencumbered.

The image would represent anything that would hinder his readers from winning their race (ancient writers sometimes used “weights” figuratively for vices); this encouragement is significant, for like Israel of old in the wilderness, they may be tempted to turn back.

2:10.

That Christ had been made lower but then exalted shows him as the forerunner of the righteous who would inherit the coming world (1:14; 2:5).

The term archēgos, translated “author” (NASB, NIV) or “captain” (KJV), means “pioneer” (NRSV), “leader” (cf.

TEV) or “champion.”

The term was used for both human and divine heroes, founders of schools or those who cut a path forward for their followers and whose exploits for humanity were rewarded by exaltation.

“For whom … and through whom are all things” was a phrase Stoics used to describe the supreme God, but the idea fit Jewish thought about God and divine Wisdom and was widely used by Diaspora Jewish writers, including Paul (1 Cor 8:6).

The Septuagint uses the author’s term for “perfect” for the consecration of a priest; some contemporary Jewish texts also speak of a righteous person’s life crowned with martyrdom as being “perfected” thereby.

the race marked out in their Christian lives,