Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy Marketing for our church. Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works. It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you, trying to grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full. The glory of Jesus. Let's go, family. Let's. Let's finish up K with Hebrews. It is day 64 now. I started doing these little countdowns in the video, okay? 63 days down, 302 days to go. I think my math's right. Okay, hey, if you haven't done today's reading timeout, pause. Just go ahead, do the reading. Easy reading today. Hebrews chapter 11, which is a fun, fun, fun chapter of scripture. Hebrews chapter 11, 12, and 13. And we are getting down to the end. This is the end of the book of Hebrews. So let's get into some context clues. Okay? If you haven't done the reading, go to the reading. Come on back. I'll be right here, ready to dig in together. Context clues. Okay. The context of the hall of Faith. Okay? Everyone knows Hebrews chapter 11 as the hall of Faith, okay? We are gonna get all the heroes of faith. Okay, if we just start In Hebrews chapter 11, we've got. I gotta scroll. There we go. We're gonna start off with Abel, and then we're gonna get Enoch, and then we get Noah, and then we get Abraham and, and we're going to get Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses's parents, then Moses and we're going to get essentially Joshua and then Rahab and Gideon, Barack, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel. Okay, like we're going to. It is the hall of faith. Okay? And then at the end it's going to say, these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect. So the whole chapter is about, you know, by faith Moses did this, and by faith Joseph did that, and by faith Jacob did this, and by faith Isaac did that, and by faith Abraham did this. So this is the hall of faith. Okay, Play on words there with hall of fame. It's the hall of faith. So famous, famous, famous, well known chapter of the Bible. There are some of these chapters that are just really well known. Kind of like think about, you know, the love chapter, right? First Corinthians, chapter 13, or you think about Romans chapter 8. Like there are some of these like chapters of the Bible, you know, the Psalm 23, some of these chapters of the Bible that are just really well known. Hebrews 11. I put on that list of a full chapter of the Bible that people really know really, really well. So I want to put this chapter into Drum roll please. Context. Okay, we're gonna put this chapter into context. And the context for Hebrews chapter 11 is actually the end of Hebrews chapter 10. Okay, so we're gonna go to the end of Hebrews chapter 10. Can start reading in verse 35. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 35 says. So do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere. Okay, Big word there. Persevere so that you have done the will of God. You will receive what he has promised. For in just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. And but my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. So key words there. Persevere, okay? Persevere. Now that's the end of chapter 10. Now we're gonna look at the beginning of chapter 12, okay? So we're gonna look at what comes before and after chapter 11. We're gonna see that chapter 11 is kind of bookended with a theme, okay? Chapter 12. All right? It says this in Hebrews, chapter 12. Okay? I'm gonna just read the first four verses of Hebrews chapter 12. Let's see if you can hear a word that gets repeated over and over and over and over and over. Remember, at the end of chapter 10, we had perseverance, okay? As a theme. Don't shrink back. Persevere. Hebrews chapter 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, that that cloud is everybody that we just talked about in Hebrews chapter 11, okay? The hall of faith. Let us throw off everything that hinders. And the sin. Not sin, but the sin. We'll dive into that in a little bit when we get to our nerdy nugget, the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance, okay? Perseverance, key word. The race marked out for us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him. He endured. He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart in your struggle against sin. So we get sin again. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Now I'm gonna put forth an interpretation that makes verse four make sense, because on its own, verse four doesn't really make any sense. So what is the sin, okay, that so easily entangles? What's this struggle against sin that has not resulted in the shedding of blood? So what's going on there? And why all this stuff about perseverance, okay? Hebrews chapter 11 needs to be understood within the context of the main thrust of the book of Hebrews. What's been the main thing that the author of Hebrews has been communicating? Don't go back. Don't turn back. Do not fall into the sin of apostasy, okay? Do not deny Christ. Don't shrink back. You need to endure. You need to persevere. You need to continue on the track you're on. You need to move forward, okay? You need to keep making progress. You need to go, go, go, go. Okay? You don't need to go back. You need to go forward, okay? Persevere, endure. These are not just themes at the end of chapter 10 or the beginning of chapter 12. These are themes for the entire book of Hebrews, okay? So everyone we have in chapter 11, they are going to have three things in common. Number one, they're either going to have gone through suffering, moral failure, or doubt. Suffering, moral failure and doubt mark every single name that we find in Hebrews chapter 11. But in spite of doubt, in spite of suffering, in spite of moral failures, they persevere in their faith. They endure in their faith. Do they have moral failures? Yes. But do they ever shrink back and stop believing? No. Do they suffer? Yes. But do they persevere in spite of suffering? Do they endure in spite of suffering? Yes. Are they gonna struggle with doubt? Are they gonna have questions? Absolutely. But are they ever gonna throw in the towel, totally give up, deny God, deny Christ, go become an apostate, get in a backslidden state? No, Absolutely not. They're gonna persevere. They're gonna endure. Sometimes with the hall of Faith, it can seem like these are just superheroes. These are superhuman individuals. They just have this faith. Well, faith is not a feeling. Faith's not an emotion. And faith is not simply some mental ascent. No, faith is perseverance. Faith is endurance. Faith is a decision that I've made in my will, and I'm deciding I'm not going back to Judaism. I'm gonna persevere in my faith. I'm gonna endure in my faith, okay, in order to have mature faith, in order to have biblical faith. And that means I've got to persevere. I've got to endure. That's the context of Hebrews chapter 11, that all of these characters we can actually like go through. These characters, okay, by faith, we get. Abel brought God a better offering than Cain. Did he go through suffering? Absolutely. Got killed by his brother Enoch. Doesn't count because God literally took him. Noah. Does Noah have a moral failure? Absolutely. He does not. Before the flood, but definitely after the flood. Abraham. Don't get me started on Abraham. My man who can't figure out if his wife is his sister and has a slave girl who he has a child by the name of Ishmael by, is moral failure. After moral failure. After moral failure, we got Isaac suffering doubt, moral failure. We probably find a little bit of that in Isaac's story. We don't get a ton about Isaac. Favoritism. Not a good idea. Mr. Isaac. Jacob, come on. My man's name means deceiver. Joseph is a pretty moral guy in the Bible, but I would bet he's probably struggling with some doubts. A lot of Questions that he probably has for God. Moses, parents, Moses, complete murderer, doesn't even get to the Promised Land because of an anger issue, an unresolved anger issue by faith, the people of Israel went through the Red Sea. Don't get me started on the people of Israel, the moral failures, doubt, suffering, all of it, okay? And on and on and on and on and on. Yet these were all commended. Why were they commended? Because faith is not the absence of suffering, faith is not the absence of doubt, and faith is not moral perfection. What is faith? A dogged determination to endure and persevere. A dogged determination that I'm not going to give up on the faith that I have in Jesus Christ. And what's my definition for faith? Believing loyalty. Right. I talk about salvation by faith alone by Matthew W. Bates a lot. And so it's believing loyalty that I have pledged fidelity to King Jesus. And I'm going to have faith. Okay. In the context of who the author's writing to, and in the context of Hebrews chapter 11, I would say that this is the kind of faith, the persevering, enduring faith that the author wants his audience to model, to emulate Bible nerds. I have an announcement. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos releases May of 2025 in pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order to the chaos of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really, God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather order. Peace isn't something that you stumble into. It's something that you intentionally step into. And that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical, it provides a very contextual understanding of the book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order or head to crushingchaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life. And that starts with grabbing a copy of this book. Now back to the podcast. Now we get to Hebrews chapter 12. Now that we kind of understand what's going on in Hebrews chapter 11. We get to Hebrews chapter 12. It says this. This is our nerdy nugget. Okay? So that's all the con. That's. We got tons of context. Now. Here's our nerd nugget, Hebrews 12. 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, okay, everybody in that hall of faith is the cloud of witnesses. Since we got all of these people who have run their race, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. What is the sin? Okay, because the author is not saying that for one person it's one sin, and for another person it's a different. No, no, no, no. The author's not saying, hey, for you it's embezzlement, and for you it's adultery. And for you, what's your sin? What's your besetting sin? Your sin is that, and your sin is that, and your sin that. No, no, no. He's saying no for my whole audience. There's the sin. There's a definite article in front of the word sin in Greek here. Okay? So the sin. What is the sin? Well, context would say that the sin that's being talked about here is a failure to endure, a failure to persevere. The sin of unbelief, the sin of throwing in the towel, denying Jesus, and going back to Judaism. That's the sin. Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, okay? It's easy to get trapped up into this. It's easy to get wrapped up in this lie that you don't need Jesus. It's easy to get wrapped up in this lie and kind of drift back into your old life of Judaism. The sin is so easily entangled. Now, here's. Here's how I know that's the sin, because here's the solution. Let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. If the sin being talked about is, you know, some thorn in the flesh, that's different for me than it is for you. Then how is the solution for both of us? Perseverance? No, the solution is perseverance because the sin that's being talked about is unfaithfulness to Jesus, apostasy, denying Jesus, going back to Judaism. Okay? A lack of perseverance and a lack of endurance is the sin that's being talked about. Therefore, perseverance and endurance is the solution. So let's keep reading. What else is the solution here? Verse 2. Fixing our eyes on Jesus the pioneer, and the perfecter of our faith, for the joy set before him endured the cross. Well, why is Jesus being talked about here? Cause he's our model for what it looks like to endure. Because the sin is a failure to endure. So the author's saying, hey, not only do you need to persevere, but you need to look at Jesus who persevered and endured for the joy set before him. He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Here's the kicker. In verse four, in your struggle against the sin of unbelief, okay? In your struggle against the sin, in your struggle against this sin to stay faithful in a Roman world, who wants you to go back to Judaism or deny Jesus? In your struggle against that sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of martyrdom. You haven't even gotten to the point that Jesus got to like. In your struggle against this sin, this temptation to shrink back, to go back, to give up. Wait, you haven't even endured to the point where they've killed you, okay? You haven't even shed blood. See, this isn't. In your struggle against lust, you haven't resisted to the point of shedding your blood. That doesn't make sense. In your struggle against, I don't know, fill in the blank with some random sin. Nothing that you could put here makes that sentence make sense unless the sin is getting out of persecution. That's exactly what these Jewish Christians were trying to do. They were trying to go back to Judaism to avoid persecution. The author of Hebrews is saying, nah, nah, nah, you haven't even resisted the sin of turning back in the sin of unbelief to the point of shedding your blood. So, hey, actually, this. It's worth shedding blood. To remain faithful in this area, you need to persevere. You need to endure. All right, let's get to our timeless truth. Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him. So without faith, it is impossible to please God. What is the goal of faith? The goal of faith is to please God. The goal of faith is not to receive a miracle or see breakthrough or for some outcome to happen. I know a lot of people who. That's their goal of faith, right? I've got faith for this outcome, or I have faith for this goal. And then when that outcome or that goal doesn't happen, the enemy can get in their ear and convince them that they wasted their energy or they wasted their time or they wasted their faith. But when you realize that the goal of faith isn't to do any of that, the goal of faith is to please the Lord. And it means, yeah, someone got diagnosed with cancer. I had faith for them to be healed. They didn't get healed. But I didn't have faith so that they would get healed. I had faith. Faith so that I could please the Lord. And faith, believing by faith that they would be healed pleases the Lord. Believing by faith that God can do X, Y, Z, that pleases God. So God is pleased when we exercise faith in him. Faith, faith, it pleases the Lord. Sometimes we can become spiritual gold diggers. And it's almost like we use faith as a means to an end. That end being a bigger house or a car or financial breakthrough or whatever, right? Whatever we're believing God for by faith. And I've learned that actually faith, it does something to my relationship with God. It creates a relationship with the Lord where he's pleased with me. And then when I get there, the enemy is never able to convince me that my faith was a waste. My faith never wastes because it pleased God. Even if the outcome I was hoping for believing God for doesn't happen, my faith still pleased God. So that's my timeless truth for the day. To challenge you to have the kind of faith that perseveres. And how are you going to have faith that endures, faith that perseveres if you're not rooting your faith in outcomes or rooting your faith in things happening a certain way. But you have to root your faith in the fact that I've exercised faith because faith pleases the Lord. I exercise faith that this person I love is gonna give their life to Jesus because that pleases God. Whether that ever happens or not is not going to make my faith swerve or fluctuate. A lot of times people's faith fluctuates because now my faith is dependent on certain outcomes. And I want to detach my faith from outcomes. I want my faith to be rooted in the person of God, in the person of Jesus, in the character of God, in the person of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so that is our. We got a lot of context loose today. Our nerdy nugget and our timeless truth. Hey, I hope that our journey through Hebrews blessed you added value to your life. Tomorrow we got the book of James, baby. Book of James. I love James. It's essentially the New Testament book of Proverbs. So I think you're gonna love James. I'll see you for day 65 right here tomorrow as we crack open the Book of James for a couple of days. I'm so proud of you. If you're on a streak, don't break it. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.