Heb 12:1-13 theme verse Heb 12:1-2
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this twenty second Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we learned through the James that we can grow into maturity as we endure the suffering, and the characteristics of Christian maturity are patience, wisdom and humility. This week we would like to think about how we can overcome weight and sin which easily cling to us in our race of faith together.
1) The Epistle to the Hebrews is known as the second letter among general Epistles, i.e., James, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, and 1, 2, and 3 John. Regarding the author of the Hebrews, the early church fathers were mixed in their opinions. Scholars of the eastern part of the Mediterranean world often suggested that the apostle Paul wrote this letter, while scholars in the West, centered in Rome, argued against that opinion, since the style of the Epistle was very different from that of Pauline letters, so even those who held to Pauline authorship, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, agreed that the style of the letter differs sharply from Paul’s writings. Therefore, today few scholars of any theological tradition hold to Pauline authorship. Yet, through the centuries, other names have been put forward, such as Luke, Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Jude, Apollos, Philip, Silvanus, and Priscilla. But, a number of scholars since the time of Martin Luther, the reformer, have suggested Apollos who was introduced in Acts 18:24-26 as the author of the Hebrews, because the author seems a person who had a broad grasp of Scripture and a heart committed to its authority and also a dynamic preacher who was highly educated and had advanced training in rhetoric and had been trained in the forms of interpretation common in Jewish synagogue and served as a leader of the church and exhibited a deep concern for the spiritual status of the recipients. But, today, we will leave it as unknown.
2) And the recipients of Hebrews, through many clues in the letter, seem to be a group of people who have some background in the Jewish synagogue and some of them seem to have abandoned the Christian faith and perhaps, returned to Judaism proper, and others remaining were struggling with the temptation to do so so that the church addressed seems to be likely located in the city of Rome. Because in the first century among the over one million inhabitants of Rome, some forty to sixty thousands were Jews, and some of Jews who visited Jerusalem at the Pentecost in Acts 2, converted to Christianity, returning to the capital to establish a church and also by the fact that we can find the earliest documented use of Hebrews in the early church in a pastoral letter known as First Clement, a letter written by Clement of Rome to the church at Corinth, so that we can guess that in all likely-hood the recipients of Hebrews are a Jewish Christian community in the city of Rome that had some members struggling with enduring in their Christian commitment.
3) Therefore, based on the facts that the recipients have been Christians for a while according to 5:11-6:3, yet, according to 10:32-34, even though they faced an increasing persecution in the past which can be addressed as the general expulsion of all Jews by Emperor Claudius in AD 49, and at the time of writing they have yet to face martyrdom based on 12:4, typically it is pointed to sometime in the mid-60s AD, just before an escalating and severe time of persecution instigated by Emperor Nero. Through this letter, the author wanted to encourage those who were spiritually wavering to persevere in their faith so that based on the theological teachings about Christ as the Son of God and the great High priest, the author exhorted them to be faithful to Him.
4) To overview whole the content of Hebrews, first of all, the author said that since God who spoke trough the prophets in the Old Testament, has now spoken through His Son in the last days, so that they had to pay much closer attention to what they have heard, not drifting away from it. And then as the author introduced Jesus in three perspectives, in other words, Jesus who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and through whom God created the world, was appointed as the heir of all things and upholds the universe by the word of His power, after making purification for sins and sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And secondly Jesus as the founder of the salvation is introduced superior to angels, Moses or Joshua. And thirdly, Jesus as the High Priest of new a better covenant by offering sacrifice once for all, was introduced to have sanctified and perfected His people and as the Mediator to be interceding, while sitting in the right hand of God. So when they hear God’s voice through Him, he exhorted them to obey, not making their hearts hard and to enter the eternal rest of God, not wavering in hope, while caring for one another, spurring on love and good deeds, and persevering. And above all, since faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen, remembering the great multitude of witnesses who have overcome the testing of faith, laying aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, the author exhorted them to run with perseverance their race that is set before them, since God's disciplines results in their holiness. Therefore, they had not to despise His discipline, but by looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and finally sat down at the right hand of Go, they were exhorted to fight against sin even to the point of shedding blood. Finally, he urged them to love brothers and sisters, to regard marriage as sacred, not to love money, rather to be content, and to obey their leaders and to pray for them.
5) Among today’s text, Heb 12:1-13, we would like to think about few points together. Firstly, it says that Jesus Christ is the founder and perfector of our faith. Here, the founder of our faith which is ἀρχηγός (archēgos) in Greek means that Jesus is the originator or initiator of the faith in the believers, while the perfecter of our faith which is Τελειωτής (teleiōtēs) in Greek means Jesus is the One who makes it complete or perfect. So that this verse means that Jesus is the One who inspires our faith from the beginning to the end by showing us the example of faith. Therefore, when we think about Jesus, we can keep and also promote our faith.
6) So then today’s text exhorted to look to Jesus who is the founder and perfector of the faith. Here the Greek which is translated to look to Jesus is “ἀφορῶντες εἰς” (aphorontes eis) where the verb ἀφοράω (aphorao) which is translated to look to is the combination of the prefix ἀφ (apho) which means from and the verb οράω (orao) so that it means to look away from something rather look to other, in other words, to look away from a current situation or all difficulties, but look only to Jesus. Therefore, the author of Hebrews tried to exhort the Roman Christians, whose heart were shaken by persecution, not to look to the current difficulties, but only to Jesus Christ instead.
7) And secondly, the author of Hebrews continued to say that the discipline was the evidence that the Lord loved them and when they endured disciplines, their character could participate in God’s holiness, and their lives bear the fruit of righteousness and peace. And then he exhorted them to make straight path to heal their feet. Here, the Greek ὀρθός (orthos) meaning straight or flat, refers to remove all obstacles or to move the feet in the right direction or to live a right life. Therefore, we can know that in order to correct our crippled legs, we must stand on the straight, right, and flat path, that is, the Jesus' way.
8) And then it is said that in the process of enduring discipline, the fruit of righteousness and peace is produced. This phrase a) can be translated as the fruit of righteousness and peace as translated in New Korean Revised Version or NIV, or b) can be translated as the peaceful fruit of righteousness, I mean, the fruit of peace which results from the righteousness as translated in ESV or NLT Bible. Therefore, we can know that enduring of suffering can result in righteous behaviors and a peaceful life.
9) But, it seems that this life of peace simply does not mean a life without suffering or conflict, because the lives of the Christians who received this Hebrews did not seem to be like that, in other words, the persecution of Christians in the Roman empire continued around three hundred years from the persecution of Nero, which began after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, to the persecution of Emperor Diocletian Galerius in the 4th century, if the author meant this peace as the peace after these persecutions ended, then they could never obtain this peace in their lives. So, we can see that this fruit of peace means the peace of mind, which Jesus Christ who kept His peace of mind even amid sufferings and even to the moment of his death on the cross, only could give those who looked to Jesus. Therefore, I pray that all of us here, who must live in the last days by faith, may look only to Jesus Christ, the founder and perfector of our faith, so that we may not only achieve righteousness but also become people in whom the peace of the Lord overflow in our hearts.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to today’s text, we can know that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of out faith so that we have to look to Him only. So after meditating on what it means to look to Jesus, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also in today’s text, the author of Hebrews exhorted to run the race before us with endurance. So reflecting what kinds of sufferings we are facing up with in this end era, I hope we could share our thought and experience with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
Comments