Faith to Finish | Pastor AJ Mosley | 12/29/2024

Hebrews 11:35-40-12:3 “35 …Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated- 38 of whom the world was not worthy-wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”
Faith to Finish
Contested Faith
Commended Fatih
Continuing Faith
Commissioned Faith
Contested Faith
Hebrews 11:35-37
Contested: to oppose an action, decision, theory, or belief as mistaken or wrong
John 16:33 (NIV) teaches us, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Persecution: Verbal - mocking
Jeremiah 20:7 “...I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.”
Physical: flogging
Jeremiah 20:2 (NIV) “he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks”
Governmental: chains, imprisonment
1 Kings 22:26-27 “And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son, 27 and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’”
Lethal: stoning, sawn in two, sword
Stoning
2 Chronicles 24:21 "But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord.”
Sawn in two
Isaiah - Jewish tradition holds that he was sawn in two under King Manasseh’s reign
Killed by sword
Jeremiah 26:23 “and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.”
Social - destitute, afflicted, mistreated
David - lived in caves and in the wilderness as he ran from Saul
2 Timothy 3:5 “ 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power…”
Fake Faith
Opportunity
Opposition
Outcome
James 1:2-4 (NIV) “2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Commended Faith
Hebrews 11:38-39 “... of whom the world was not worthy… All these… [were] commended through their faith”
Commended - to testify or to bear witness
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV) “8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
Continuing Faith
Hebrews 11:39-40 “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
Eschatalogical expectation - the hope and anticipation of future events promised by God
Savior
Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Eternal Judgement
Daniel 12:2 “2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Life after Death
Job 19:25-26 “25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God”
Genesis 15:16 “And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
Commissioned Faith
Hebrews 12:1-3
Remove
Run
Reflect
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