Wed Nov 19

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words let us.

Reading

Hebrews 12:1-3—Consider Him

Optional Reading

Matthew 27:24-37; Hebrews 12:2

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Many heroes of faith urge us on in the Christian life.
We must run long and hard as we look to Jesus.
Considering Jesus keeps us from giving up.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

How is Jesus the pioneer (or founder) of our faith?
How is Jesus the perfector of our faith?
How can we keep our eyes on Jesus?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors. Today’s notes are from a commentary on Hebrews by Kent Hughes.)

In capping his famous challenge to finish well, the writer [of Hebrews] gives the idea of focusing on Jesus a dynamic twist by concluding: “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (v. 3). The phrase “grow weary and lose heart” was sports lingo in the ancient world for a runner’s exhausted collapse. Thus, the way for the Christian runner to avoid such a spiritual collapse was to “consider him”—that is, to carefully calculate (we derive our word logarithm from the Greek word translated “consider”) Jesus and his endurance of opposition from the likes of Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate. We are to remember his confidence and meekness and steel-like strength in meeting his enemies.

No one can miss the superb wisdom of this passage: we must be totally absorbed with Jesus. This requires negation—turning away from those things that distract us—and then the positive act of consciously focusing and meditating on Jesus. This is why we must read and re-read the Gospels. This is why our worship must be Christocentric. This is why he must be the measure of all things. …

We must focus on Jesus as “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” Jesus must cover the entire sky. He must be the center and horizons of our sight. Such vision will insure for us faith’s beginning and end. We must consider him and how he lived amidst contradiction and follow his example.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 90b, 88a

Prayer

Pray that you will keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Pray for change in you from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.