Introduction
We come today to the end of a time too brief as we unwind the text of Hebrews, study and pray about evangelism, and look back over our heritage, and especially over the last 40 years. As lectureship director, when committee allows me to speak on the program, I get the delightful opportunity and challenge of assigning myself a topic. "Communicating the Message of Hebrews in Today's World."
Raises several questions:
What is the message of Hebrews?
What is the nature of today's world?
How bridge gap to insure communication?
Must remember that I am a preacher. I have always seen myself as a preacher. Still have trouble seeing myself as a professor. Do not always take direct route.
To answer the questions, not directly but indirectly, visit a text that usually runs like a refrain through any study of the book of Hebrews. The author is summarizing, concluding. A little text remains after, but this summarizes. Heb 12:1ff.
"Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses"--one last glance over shoulder to list of people of faith that were forefathers--in heritage & in faith--of those reading this writing. These people of faith are also our heritage. From ch. 11 we are reminded of Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Isaac, Moses, Rahab...on and on. All living lives by faith before God.
As a preacher, I marvel at restraint required not to preach a little sermon on each of these. Shouldn't we be strong like Samson? Should we be willing to give up everything like Abraham, etc. etc. But here is imp pt for preachers. Not always inspiring to parade before an audience the great superheroes of faith. May be depressing.
Listen to sermon, illus are Peter and Paul, or missionaries who endangered their lives, had feet frozen off in arctic or bodies shriveled in equatorial heat. Sit in ch, listen to these, preacher throws in a couple of good Alex the Great or Napoleon stories. It's too bad you can't be a Xn like that in Macksville, KS. It is indeed a shame that in my little town, no one is chasing, imprisoning, or killing Christians.
Reminds me of summer camps. Remember inspiring, candlelight nights of consecration, light candle around the circle, "I am committed." Can give my life, will give my life. Did not know how I would give my life. Dream of rescuing someone, perhaps I would drown, or die as missionary, foreign land, persecution.
I was sincere, have been through 1/3 c. of preaching. I like to call it 4 decades, soon to be 5. 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s. I will give my life, but no one warned me that it would not happen as I imagined. In battle, in war, men and women "give their lives." But most of us do not give our lives that way--rather we give our lives a little at a time, a day at a time, an event here, years of little things, one speaker calls them little checks--45c, 1.82, 2.03, 26c... Our lives are nibbled away. Lives of drinking a sip here, sip there. You one day retire. Did you notice, did anyone notice...that you gave your life, drank the cup, paid the price?
Now these heroes were not perfect. Some preachers like that kind of prchng--pt out flaws of others, take the great characters of Bible and our time and pt out flaws, feet of clay. Abraham lied about his wife, Jacob cheated his brother, Rachel took the old idols along just in case. Preach such sermons and everyone feels good. "Everyone has their problems." We're only human.
But that is not the purpose of Hebrews. The writer says these great people of faith lived their lives with trust in God, they endured, they were faithful. They are the cloud of witnesses, but attention quickly turns to you and to me.
These are what Joyce Landorf has labeled the balcony people. They are in the balcony, cheering us on, pulling us up, reminding us that the task is possible, the obstacles surmountable. But as these cheer us on in our race, we are reminded that it is now our time. These have continued on despite the odds and obstacles, and now the fatigue, the danger of falling, the difficulties are upon you and me.
Thus we are introduced to our assignment--casting off, getting rid of, shedding every impediment, every hindrance, every burden, every sin that clings too closely. Get rid of that so you can run. This is a race. Get rid of everything that holds you back. Easy to say, difficult to do. Because we love some of those things, relationships, pains, habits, this is difficult to do. But bigger problem arises when we do not know what they are.
So capable are we at self-deception. Illus: prchr in ch, prob, prchr knows prob, IDs persons causing prob, continues, prays "Lord remove the problem." A few months later he is gone. Preoccupied all that time with the wrong thing. It is not easy to lay aside the hindrance and run with endurance.
Would like to use another word, endurance is tough. Perseverance no better. Some translate patience, but that's not what it really is. Is endurance. Stick-to-it-tiveness. Staying in there. Wish I could spruce it up, but it's get up and go, every day, day after day. You know of wonderful times when what we want to do and have to do are the same. Blissful, but most of time what we want to do and what we have to do do not coincide, and that's endurance.
Esp problematic in culture enamored with feeling. How did you feel about it? Well, I didn't feel like it. Why weren't you there? I didn't feel like it. I passed out scripture texts for students in class to preach. Students look at text rec'd, flip thru Bible, read it, come to ask, "Can I have another one?" What's wrong with that one?" Well, I read it and didn't feel anything. Well, take it home and get to feeling something because that is assignment.
I remember first time an eldership asked me to preach on a specific text. Terrified. How do you preach on a text? I'd been to school 4 years, graduated, degree in Bible. Many preachers are not enduring, taking the easy way out, preaching on whatever they feel like, not on what ch needs to hear, not on what God wants to say. Many people want the reward first, feel good.
But what makes world go around, what makes church work, what keeps everything going is endurance. Jan rushes around, cleans house, looks great, weekend before lectureship. I ask her why? She says, "Every time I see a vacuum, I get that feeling, I am moved, I am thrilled." No. She says, you invited company for lectureship, I don't want them to see house like this, get out of the way.
Professor grades papers late, or is back at the office, or preacher at building on day off, why. Not about racing pulse and throbbing heart. Miss Brown says grades are due on a certain day. I cannot leave campus until I turn them in. It is as simple as that. Preachers preach sermons with heavy hearts--daughter in trouble, son expelled, accidents, problems. Goes to pulpit, temples pounding, preaches the gospel. Why? Because it is 11:00, it is Sunday, and I'm the preacher here.
7:15 Sun p.m. Jan, can you drive home. Understand, she never drives, I always drive. I get home, temp is 104. I didn't know I was so sick. Endurance makes the world go round. Run with endurance, looking to Jesus. Easier to look around, easier to look at everything else. All interested in marketing, what is popular, what do people want? World of diff between what people think they want and what they need. Looking to Jesus.
Not just going around bragging on Jesus, saying wonderful things about God, Christ, King, Master, this-that. Not using name of Jesus to endorse political or personal agendas. Not a name to pronounce in polite places. When some find Jesus, start mentioning him often, but lives are no different. Looking to Jesus. What does that mean? He is the model, the pioneer, the trailblazer, the forerunner. That is how we live if we understand and live out the book of Heb.
Do you know this Jesus? How communicate this superior Jesus? They bring him a leper, he touches him. They bring him babies--crying, wetting, dropping pacifiers. Disciples said, Get those kids out of here, we're trying to have kingdom here. Take them to junior kingdom. Jesus said, let them come, this is kingdom. He feeds multitudes, is compassionate to hungry, eats with sinners, with rich, with poor. He loves, he cares, he gives himself. He weeps over sin. He is ultimately hanged on the cross for us. This looking to Jesus is right here, very hard.
He doesn't look like Messiah..."who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God."
When look to Jesus, have to make majestic flip-flop. This character of God, son of God disappoints. Jews thought where Messiah is there will be no problems, now have to see the opposite. It is precisely where we struggle--when we disappoint ourselves, when we want to quit, when we do quit, when we see our own sinful struggle--that Jesus is there, witnesses are cheering us on, there is his example, there is his way opening before us. This is life-changing faith in Christ, not just in his life, but in life of the church.
How communicate the message of Heb in our kind of world? Throw aside the hindrances, run the race with patience, look to Jesus constantly, and follow his example. Live faithfully, love all generously, support others compassionately, speak truthfully, pray daily, and leave everything else to God! Do not quit. That is the message of Hebrews that we take to the world most effectively when we live it out in our daily lives.
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[Note: This lecture was delivered as part of the 40th annual Bible lectureship at Ohio Valley College. Some of the illustrations and wordings were borrowed from Fred Craddock's excellent treatment of Hebrews in the "Odyssey" video series.]
