Hebrews 12

Hebrews 12

Shawn Bumpers / General

Hebrews

Introduction:

athletic references.

1 Corinthians 9:24–25 NKJV

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

Hebrews 10:35 NKJV

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

Hebrews 11:16 NKJV

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Rahab, Joseph, etc …

Philippians 3:12–14 NKJV

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

v1-2

τοιγαροῦν toigaroun – therefore

heroes of the faith of chapter 11

1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Romans 15:4 ESV

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Numbers 21:8 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”

John 3:14–15 NKJV

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Hebrews 2:13 NKJV

And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And again: “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”

This involved shame, suffering, the opposition of sinners, and even temporary rejection by the Father. 

John 17:4 NKJV

I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

“let us run.”

a course to complete

a goal to reach

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 2:10 NKJV

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Hebrews 1:9 NKJV

You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”

Philippians 2:5–8 NKJV

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

future hope.

look back and want to go back

v3-6

Don’t lose heart in the face of God’s discipline.

Hebrews 5:8 NKJV

though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

Isaiah 53:5 NKJV

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

παιδεία paideia: child training, instruction, discipline

Hebrews 12:11 NKJV

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

v7-13

ὑποτάσσω hypotasso – submit

Discipline is painful.

Hebrews 12:11 NIV84

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

2 Thessalonians 1:5 NKJV

which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer;

Cause for joy

1 Peter 3:14 NKJV

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.”

1 Peter 4:14 NKJV

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.

Which points out to us the importance of how God’s child responds to chastening.

1 Timothy 4:8 NKJV

For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

Exhaustion – spiritual, emotional

Proverbs 4:26 NKJV

Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.

v14-17

Hebrews 10:25 NKJV

not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Deuteronomy 29:18 NKJV

so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood;

Root of bitterness – “disbelief” and actions of disbelief

πόρνος pornos speaks of a sexually immoral person.

βέβηλος bebēlos speaks of a godless person.

v18-24

The giving of the Law.

Mt. Sinai = Old Covenant of Law

Mt. Zion = the New Covenant of grace in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 4.

Psalm 110:1–2 NKJV

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!

Philippians 3:20 NKJV

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Luke 10:20 NKJV

Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Colossians 1:18 NKJV

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

v25-29

God is speaking to us today through His written Word.

God shook things at Sinai.