Sermon Tone Analysis

Referenced Verses:

Scripture Reading 1 Timothy 2:1-13

Introduction

Good morning church family.

I hope you all had a safe 4th of July.

As Chris mentioned last week he has been here just over 6 months.

We have been in Colossians all year and he asked me to preach after he concluded Paul’s letter.

It always takes me a while to discern what God wants me to preach on.

As I thought about what to preach on, I started to reflect on the last 6 months.

I have been continually surprised about what God has been showing me each week.

I shouldn’t be surprised but I am.

I have been surprised by the depth that is in the Word and how much I have glossed over in my reading of the book of Colossians in the past.

I have to admit I have also had to realized that I have learned some things wrong or incomplete.

I want to thank Chris for trusting the Word and the Holy Spirit to reveal His truths to us.

How about you?

Have you been challenged or stretched through the book of Colossians?

As I reflected on this, my mind kept coming back to a specific set of scriptures.

This scripture was the first scripture I ever memorized.

I actually memorized it months before I became a Christian.

This is a scripture that I have not deeply explored since then.

I have read it and quoted it but I have not really studied it.

I wanted to go back through the scripture and see what God says through them today.

They are very applicable to each of us today and to the life of our Church here.

The scripture is Hebrews 12:1-3

A little background on the passage.

The book of Hebrews was written by an unknown Author.

Many have tried to determine who wrote it but there is not conclusive evidence pointing to any one person.

It is unique in it structure and it does not follow the traditions of the other letters in the bible It is most likely a letter or a sermon to a small group of Jewish Christians and not to the general public.

The writer was part of this group.

We know this due to the familiarity with the readers and specific details in the letter.

He talks about earlier days and wanting to return to them.

The beginning of Hebrews 12 is a transition between chapters 11 and 12. Depending on the bible translation you have these verses may be grouped a a conclusion to chapter 11 or the beginning of the next section.

Inspiration to the Racer

The author uses imagery of a racer to bring to light the truth that God wants to share with his friends.

He starts Chapter 12 with “Therefore”.

This is pointing back to the “Faith Hall of Fame” as we call it.

The writer has just recalled some of the great people in the bible.

He is reminding this group of Christians, of the Enduring Faith of the men and women that has come before them.

Hebrews 11:1-4

He then goes on to detailing out the example of faith of OT people and concludes with

Because of all of these great examples of Faith He writes:

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us...

Who are the witnesses that are being spoke of?

Raise your hand if the first image in your head was a stadium or a long race with all of the people of the last chapter watching you race down the track?

This as what I thought this ment but the word witness can be used two ways and there is a tension here about how it is used here.

The definition of a witness is;

Witness: Someone who sees an event and reports what happened.

The difference is dependent on whether the witnesses are seeing or reporting.

Are the witnesses seeing something for the first time or are they coming before a court and giving an account or testimony to what they saw observed.

Are we surrounded by witnesses in life?

Absolutely.

Paul tells Timothy:

1 Timothy 6:12

It is true that our Faith plays out in front of many people and how we live are lives for Jesus very important but based on the tie to Chapter 11, it makes more sense that the writer is communicating that all of the people of the last chapter are testifying to the endurance of Faith.

He was pointing them back to these men and women who’s lives God recorded for us as examples of the faith.

They are examples that overcame great obstacles, they failed at times, their lives were not easy and they endured many hard days.

But they lived in Faith that the promises of God would come true even if they did not see it with their own eyes.

There isn’t anything to suggest that they are watching us cheering us on or watching us fail.

They have lived and died and their lives testimony is shared with us.

We must look to the word for encouragement and the reality of what a faithful life looks like.

Phil 2:16

We must hold firm to the word of life.

We must be very careful to what we hold firm too.

We cannot hang on to the Saints and worship them.

We cannot hold firm to pastors and teachers and follow them blindly.

We cannot look to self help books and follow them.

We can seek information from all of them but we cannot hold firm to them.

As Christians running the race we:

Look to the testimony of the witnesses that came before us and give testimony to those that come behind.

What have you seen that you can give a report on to your coworkers or neighbors?

What are some specifics of your ongoing testimony to your race?

Instruction to the Racer

We have seen that finishing the race is possible through the testimony given chapter 11 and many other places in scripture.

Do you ever read the bible and read about people like King David and think to yourself, “He had such huge faith, I could never be like that?” or “That’s great but how did he get there?”

The verse continues with instruction on how to run the race of faith.

let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.

This part of this verse is so easy to read.

Even an engineer is not challenged by the wording.

There are no hard names, no foreign concepts, the language is so familiar to us, that it is really easy to speed through this part of the verse and not stop to see what lays below the surface.

If you read this like I did as a kid maybe all you got out of it was “Don’t sin.”

I really doubt that “Don’t Sin” is a new concept to most of us.

But lets look into it deeper.

The idea starts with “Let us”

The author is part of this group of believers.

He is calling himself and the recipients of the message to join him in action.

Lay aside means:

lay aside: to take off, or to stop oneself from being in a state or condition

let us lay aside: to take off, or to stop oneself from being in a state or condition

This can simply mean to take off.

Like to take off a garment.

It can also mean to stop oneself from being in a state or condition.

One way to say this would be to say “Let us take off every hindrance and sin” or what if we said “Let us change our state of carrying hindrances and let us change our state of sinning”

If you remember back to Colossians Paul uses the same command and it is translated as “Put away”

Change your state of: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language.

James 1:21

Here it is translating “ridding”.

Change your state of moral filth and evil.

Change from your pride to humility to recieve the word.

every: Each.

As in every one counted individually