SUNDAY LESSON, 10/16/22
DON’T GIVE UP: GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES
Hebrews 12:1 and selected passages from Hebrews 11
Continuing the sermon series “DON’T GIVE UP”, we will be studying some of the men and women of faith from Hebrews 11 that the writer describes as “a great cloud of witnesses”.
The author of Hebrews is urging his readers, Jewish Christians throughout the region, who were on the verge of leaving the faith because of persecution not to quit. He reminds them that many of their ancestors have endured insurmountable odds for their beliefs, but trudged onward because of their “faith in the unseen”.
We will be studying the lives of some of these “witnesses” in hopes that we, too, will remain faithful to Christ in the midst of difficulties and hardships.
HEBREWS 12:1-3
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 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. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 11:35-40
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[a] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
