Beholding the Lord through His word, part IV

We are embarking on this fourth in a series on beholding the Lord through his word. We're here as Courtney read for us in the book of Hebrews now. And this series has begun with 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all beholding the glory of the Lord.

Then John 1, the first 18 verses of John Gospel of John chapter one We saw his glory full of grace and truth is what John wrote and proclaimed Last week we looked at first John the first four verses of the book We have seen with our eyes the word of life and today Hebrews 12 1 & 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus let's Look to the book of Hebrews now Hebrews is a very special book by the way.

I've got to tell you I Hebrews is written to Jews, and I might clarify, these are Jews who had come to believe in Christ as their Savior at a time when the sacrificial system in Jerusalem was still in place, still active. And many Jews who had become believers in Christ were being tempted to drift back under Judaism, to fall back under the sway of Judaism and all the traditions that went along with it.

Now, one of the things that we'll point out here, as an interesting aside, Hebrews has a full cargo of nautical terms, shipping terms, and it also makes active use of athletic terms, alright? So you need to know that. Now, I'm about to be stoned for all these puns, but just so you'll have something to distract you, on the back, on the cabinet, as you exit the room on the right, is a handout of two pages. The first page is a listing of all the nautical terms that the book of Hebrews uses, lots of them, from near the beginning to the very last chapter. Shipping terms, very interesting.

The other is the athletic terms, including the passage we're looking at here, so feel free to take advantage of that. Now, One of the other things that comes out of this though, today's passage is one of those passages with athletic terms, and it says, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Of course, take a look at that a little more closely. These first two verses in Hebrews 12 were written in a cultural background of lots of athletic competition, and here specifically, running was a big part of it. Now, one of the things we point out here on the pottery is those guys they have there running have no clothes on. Stark naked. And that's why we have that labeled over the top of it.

Anyway, the Olympics that we here we have this Olympic tradition. The Olympics began about eight centuries before this book was written. So it's kind of amazing. Here's eight centuries of tradition. that the Olympics had already maintained before this book was written. So it was a very well-established thing, certainly in the Greek culture.

And a number of Jews had gotten involved in it by this time, and actually for a few centuries. And here's how it came about. Alexander the Great, as he swept from Greece on towards the east and some towards the south as well, came into Israel. And interestingly enough, while he battled his way into a great many areas, the Jews actually received him rather warmly. As a matter of fact, Jodwa, the high priest, came with a book of Daniel and he says, we knew you were coming. Because they knew in advance that he was coming. And so, Alexander the Great actually was rather positively surprised and treated the Jews rather well and they him as well.

So, the introduction of the the high regard for athletics was brought into the Jewish culture and had been there now by the time of this writing for close to four centuries. Another interesting thing, Herod the Great, who by the way was not so great, who was the one who was ruler over Israel, during the time of the birth of Christ sponsored in 12 BC the Olympics. He underwrote the majority of the expenses and so Jews end up paying the taxes in order to fund the Olympics that year. Hebrews was written to Jews, again Jews who had put their trust in Christ, living in these Gentile lands where athletics was high priority. right near the center of many of the larger cities, they would have a gymnasium. And it was because of the priority of athletics that the gymnasium would be a substantial structure and right near the center of town.

Here in the area around Ephesus was one of those places where the Jews were located and also significant population in northern Egypt and the city of Alexandria. Here's how it came about. 332 BC, here's where the Jews were moved from Israel to Alexandria, named after Alexander the Great, because the Jews had a good relationship with him. Alexander wanted some Jews who were on his side to establish this new city down in Egypt. So they moved there. 220 BC, a great number of Jews moved from Babylon to the area we now call Turkey. They were offered a 10-year tax-free period if they would move. 2,000 Jewish families took them up on it.

Now, as we go in this Hebrews 12.1 passage to the word Jesus, that will be the first part that we'll tackle. And then the second part there will be from the word Jesus in verse 2 on to the end of the verse. One of the things we'll note then is that the word Jesus in this passage is kind of the center point. of the passage.

And so what you see here, and it's on page one of your handout, is this is, and this may just blow your circuits, but it's another chiasm, okay? And the reason we point that out here is this chiasm gives us an understanding of how the passage was written. What did the author have in mind when he was writing these words? A chiasm is like a mirror image in written form, where you have the top part and then the bottom part is like a reflection of that, a mirror image on the bottom half.

And so what you have on the top half here is what we're called to be doing, and that is the top part, that is our place that's pointed out. The bottom part is what he, what Jesus, did and is doing. So it spells out in mirror image that pattern. The first section and the last section of that chiasm, both actions take place in heaven. Those who have gone before, these cloud of witnesses, as we'll see shortly, are in heaven and the Lord Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God also. The next part is consistent.

That section is on the first part, us laying aside sin and encumbrance and the Lord laying aside the shame. Not being hindered by the shame and us not being hindered by sin and other encumbrances. And finally, these two match up a couple of sets of words. We run with endurance the race set before us, that's our part. The Lord's part that corresponds to that, Christ for the joy set before him, there's the word set before, endured the cross, past tense.

And finally, the middle part is emphasizing and serving as a turning point. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, that's the emphasis of the passage. the author and perfecter of faith. That's the center. That's what the author is wanting us to direct our primary attention to. Okay, let's take a look at this, starting with verse 1.

Here we have the words pointing back to the prior chapter. This is the chapter that's sometimes called the Great Hall of Faith, where the Old Testament saints are kind of counted down in terms of the things that they did by faith. the things that they endured. The next phrase we see there is, we have so great a cloud of witnesses. Great numbers of saints in scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, both, are often pictured as being great in number by describing them as clouds. And he does that here. The mass of their appearance, a great number of witnesses that we have, others who have gone before us, is laying out. Appearing so great a number as to be when brought together as if they were a cloud. And so the great number of Old Testament witnesses from chapter 11 are pictured here, the very first verse in chapter 12, as a great cloud of witnesses, a great many of them. Now, the next part here is witnesses surrounding us.

Witnesses most often means those who give testimony, and of course we often think of that. We think typically of a legal sense, although it may be testimony in some other important matter, aside from the legal area. But the Greek word here is actually martis, it's where we get our word martyr. And it can mean martyrs, that is, testifying by their death. Stephen, for example, was a martyr who testified of the truth even by his death. His death was a testimony. Here, these saints in the Old Testament, many of them died for what they believed. It cost them that. But their dying was a testimony.

They also serve as spectators. just like sports spectators painted blue and orange and funny colors, okay? But as spectators that have watched something and are watching something of serious import, they are watching us with serious import. We pointed out when we were going through chapter 3 of Ephesians that the angels are watching us. This is interesting because also we have Old Testament saints watching us. Isn't that interesting? Now, here's the next part.

This let us also lay aside, those words here are translated from a Greek word that is conveying an invitation, it's an exhortation, calling the believers to lay aside anything that would hinder their athletic pursuit of spiritual growth. Don't you expect and foresee that athletes would work hard towards their goal? towards performing a particular game or event that they're involved in. And he's using that analogy here to get the point across to believers. This is an athletic event for which you are competing. Therefore, you need to lay aside anything that's getting in the way.

Except for Acts 7.58, all the words here refer to, as the words are used in the New Testament, refer to setting aside sin. Let me explain what I mean. In this Acts 7 passage, it says Stephen, who was going to be stoned, or was being stoned, had a number of Jews there who were involved, and they laid aside their extra robes, extra clothing, at the feet of Saul, later to be called Paul. That laying aside of clothing is the exact same word.

All the rest of the uses of that word from Romans down to 1 Peter, including our passage here, is that same word figuratively laying aside as clothing, sin, and the involvement in sin. Now, the next line, every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.

These words call to mind anything that limits our spiritual progress. Ever try to do something or go somewhere and have something hanging on to you? I remember when I was younger, a lot of times it would be kids on my legs. And they would limit your progress as much as you enjoyed them. It's anything here that would limit our spiritual progress that he's pointing to.

He's saying, shed it. Get rid of it. Physically, what was the point? Physically, they meant getting rid of extra body weight. You're going to have to work that off. And extra clothing. Especially the loose and lengthy garments. And that's why they did their running without any clothes on.

Okay, but in spiritual terms, what does that mean? It means, of course, any sins that would hinder us. But also, here's something else. He doesn't just say sins, but he also says encumbrance, in sort of a general term. Is it possible that as believers, there may be things that it is not wrong for us to do, but may be just in the way? Ever think about that? might be things that just are in the way and keeping us from our walk with the Lord, keeping us from spiritual progress. And those kinds of things may be something to kind of ponder, because it's not like, gee, these are things that are bad. They just might be a distraction, something in the way.

Now, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. These words picture the daily life of you and I, you and I who believe, as a long race. It's a long athletic competition. The author of Hebrews here used the Greek word set before three times in the book. Two of them are right in these verses we're looking at here. Each time it refers to a necessary goal. It's not a, here's an optional route, here's something you might do. It's something that you must do. Something set before you. This is a race that you are definitely in. You're involved in as a believer. It is not simply something that is an option. Fixing our eyes. Now here's something we've got to point out.

In the athletic tradition, the serious competitor, and I'm not sure they had very many who weren't, would fix their eyes upon the goal. Not only physically would they rivet their eyes upon the goal, but also mentally. Mentally, they would set their minds on where they're headed and use that as their motivational tool. Kind of athletic psychology, if you will. They would set aside anything that appeared to be a distraction. By continuing to focus on that goal, they wouldn't be drawn aside by things that might distract them.

Paul likewise presented this picture in Philippians 3, 12-14. Let's take a look at that. This is one where he says, not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold, and by the way, I may lay hold, that's the Greek term for get first prize, to win. I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of. Isn't that interesting?

Laid hold of by Christ. Christ won you. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. I have not gained that prize yet. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.

This goal is skapos. We get our English word scope from that, where we go looking through the scope. It was the athlete's, not only his visual fixed focus with his eyes, but his mind was riveted on there as well. There was a singular mental focus. He looked at himself as being at the goal. Every step was simply a fulfillment of where he was already mentally. So this post here, and here would be an example, in this case they actually put three posts in a row, but that was the idea, that was a skapos. That was where the athlete would fix their eye, where they were headed.

Here we are in Colorado. About 10 years ago this year, a friend and I, we lived in Carson City, Nevada at the time. A friend and I started at Truckee, and we went over to Boonville, California, near the Northern California coast. And we made that trip on bicycle, and it was about 300 miles. We did it in about three days.

And what we did is to simply plant our minds, this is where we're going, and it was simply a matter of following through, mentally placing yourself, that's where I'm at. That is where I'm at. That's my focus. I'm already there. The rest of it is just a matter of catching up to where I already am. And that's really what we're being urged to here, right? Fixing our eyes on Jesus. Now, there's another biblical principle behind these words, and it's a biblical principle, not the kind that's at the school.

In the same way that human beings have senses for perceiving the physical world, we have our five senses, at least most of us do, for perceiving the physical world, We are also equipped with spiritual senses, and just about every one of those is actually conveyed in the spiritual sense in the New Testament. Is that interesting? We have senses for sensing things in the physical realm. We also have senses for things in the spiritual realm.

Let me explain that. Here, for example, is where in Hebrews, same book, It talks about spiritual hearing loss. How about that? I'm not sure where you get a spiritual hearing aid, but he talks to them about being dull of hearing. You don't hear as well as you want to, spiritually. Or, here is in Revelation, as we saw, chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, there is the He who has an ear, let him hear, seven times in chapters 2 and 3. I'll let you figure out why there's an ear on the hand.

Blinded minds. Paul also wrote 2 Corinthians 4. The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see. Are they physically blind? No. Spiritually blind. Interesting. Their senses, though they ought to be there spiritually, are not there.

Ephesians 1, 18 and 19, I pray that the eyes of your heart, and the translation here says maybe, but actually looking at it carefully, I think it's having been enlightened. So that you will know what is the hope of His calling. Spiritual senses. So here in this passage, Jesus is not only the one on whom we fix our spiritual focus with these spiritual eyes, with the eyes of our heart, but he's also the center point of this passage and the turning point.

There are a great many things that are going to happen to us in the course of life on this planet, right? And a great many things will call for our attention. As a matter of fact, there are millions and millions, I'll say billions of dollars that are spent calling for your attention. It's called advertising. But our call from scripture is clear. Jesus, that's the focus.

Now, I want to bring this racing analogy a little bit more forward, updated a little bit. NASCAR. Okay? Alright. So here's this NASCAR race. We're at this NASCAR race. And I'm going to change it a little bit. We're going to make it nighttime and you're driving. Alright? Nighttime, you're driving, you're going 180 miles an hour, more or less. And as you're driving, do you prefer to be able to see clearly or is a tad fuzzy okay? Is blurry just fine with you?

What do you pick? My reason for bringing that up, remember we brought up three weeks ago, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. We behold the Lord through his word. And as we do so, we are called to, and we certainly have every need to, to see the Lord clearly. What exactly did the Lord say?

We pointed out the importance of looking at scripture, observing. interpreting, not just so that we have an interpretation, but so that it has application in our lives and ultimately that we appropriate it, live it out. Doctrine is intended to be lived, not simply believed academically, not simply to be printed out on a page or posted on our website. In this observation, we've pointed out that there is a language aspect There is a historical aspect, and there is a cultural aspect. We look at each one of these things in order to then understand what God's Word is saying. Now, let's look at the second part of this passage.

Here's Hebrews 12.2, beginning with the word Jesus.

From here, the author of Hebrews turns from the key aspects of our running, the race, And ending, fixing our eyes on Jesus, to Jesus Himself, focusing upon Him. Who the Lord Jesus is, what the Lord Jesus has done, and what He has accomplished, and what He is doing now, right this moment. As He does, He actually pictures Christ as running a race as well. A race in which He endured. a race that was set before him, just like ourselves. Everything in Judaism that was tempting to the Jews, and by that we mean the Jews who had become believers in Christ, to slide back into its grasp.

The author of Hebrews comes up with a very clear, singular answer. You know what the answer is? Jesus. That's the answer. Fix your eyes on Him. Think about this. Everything in our own past that tempts us to slide back into a scratch. Ever had that happen? Ever experienced that? Where you feel like, boy, something's grabbing you. Something you thought, oh, I thought I was free from this. And yet, it seems to want to draw us back. The author of Hebrews has an answer. He says, no, shed that, because your eyes are fixed on Jesus.

Jesus is then described as the author and perfecter of faith. Now, to be the author of something means to be the source of it, the one who, as we often use it, writes the book, and to begin it, to be the one that starts it out and sets it in place. The last half of that, the perfecter, is to bring something to completion, but not just some completion, but a completion that has a supreme quality.

That's the Lord Jesus. He is the one who has authored all of our faith. He is the one who has begun it and given it its content. He is the one who perfects faith to a supreme quality. He is the one to whom we are being conformed. Christ is both of those things, isn't He? He defines how and why we're Christians today. He will define what it will mean to be in Him until we see Him face to face.

Now about that thing called faith, an important thing we point out. Human beings are by nature creatures of faith. Have you noticed that? Certainly lots of people believe in things that are religious of various kinds, but even the outspoken atheists and agnostic creatures of faith, great faith as a matter of fact, it's simply a matter of where it's placed. Human beings cannot escape being beings of faith. We will always put our trust somewhere.

The call here is in the Lord Himself. The world's going to offer a great deal of options to us, of course, as to where we can put our faith. But, ultimately, the author of Scripture is laying down, only Christ is worthy, from the beginning to the end, from the start to the finish, the author and the perfecter, the Alpha and the Omega. The Lord is worthy of our faith and trust. He is the one who himself has finished the race. We are called to live a race, live a race that He has already finished. We're in Him. Think about this.

What motivated Jesus to die on the cross? What motivated Him to die for our sins? Did He just think, boy, it'd sure be great to go through this intensely painful event? Maybe the Father and the Holy Spirit says, well, you've got to do it, and they just twisted his arm until he said, uncle.

No, what we see here is the insight from this verse, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. That, amazingly, was his motivation. despising the shame. We saw that in the chiasm as parallel to our own setting aside of sin in every encumbrance. He says, I will not be held back by the shame. So we've got a question here. Was the cross shameful?

One of the things that we are told in Scripture is a crown of thorns was thrust upon his head. The Romans, once they pronounced sentence of death, you know how in our Constitution we have this prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment? The Romans didn't have that.

So they could basically do anything they want. You're going to kill them anyway. As cruelly as you can do it, all the better. First they give them a beating, you know that was standard. You didn't go to the cross without getting beaten first. Then they make you carry this thing that you're going to die on. That was the next part.

They get the nails out. And, real interesting, this bone that you see here is the only actual physical evidence of crucifixion that we have of someone who had been crucified out of thousands of crucifixions in the Roman Empire over the centuries. It was found in Jerusalem. And, interestingly enough, the nail was actually driven right through the heel bone. And so the Romans really didn't care. They're going to nail it anywhere it goes through. And is it going to hurt? Yeah. It will.

But the main thing about crucifixion is you are a living human billboard that said, don't mess with Rome. What's pictured here is men being crucified having no clothing on. In truth, that was typical. No clothing. Plenty of shame. And at times the crime nailed onto the cross as well along with you. Yeah, plenty of shame. Lots of it.

This Greek word translated, has sat down, is in the perfect tense. Christ has sat down, and it's a done deal. What do we mean by the perfect tense? It's like having a baby. What do I mean by that? It's a completed past action with ongoing results into the future. You know how that is. That's what it is. A perfect tense is a completed past action, ongoing results into the future.

Jesus Christ has, He's not doing it or getting there or partway done. He has sat down, taken that seat of authority at the right hand. That means power and salvation of God. This message here is basically carrying over the message in Psalm 110. That's the most quoted Old Testament verse throughout the New Testament. And clearly stated, Jesus Christ has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is also the very place where each believer is blessed and seated with Christ right now, at the right hand of the throne of God. Ephesians 1, 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed, past tense, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. That seeding, of course, is told to us in Ephesians 2, 6. In Ephesians 2, 4-7, God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions. And then in verse 6, He seeded us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. Christ is seeded.

Done deal. Perfect tense. Completed past action. Ongoing results in the future. We're seeded there with Him. Right there. That's why we can believe that we've been seated there with Him right now. Verse 7, what's the reason you've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies?

How come? Is there a purpose for that? It says right here. so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. You see, the Lord has only begun to scratch the surface of showing us His grace. His grace is truly amazing grace. We're seated there for that purpose. Isn't that phenomenal? Forever and ever to show us more and more and more of His gaspingly awesome grace. That's why.

The author of Hebrews here has said that Christ was crucified, for the joy set before Him endured the cross. He jumps ahead in these five ways that Scripture says we've been identified with Christ, to being seated with Him. He includes those two and assumes the ones in between.

We looked earlier at this chiasm, at this pattern for the passage here, and one of the things we noted is right here in the middle is the focus. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. That's the emphasis of this passage we looked at here this morning. It's the emphasis and the turning point. If we look back at the passages we've been looking at over the last four weeks here, including this one, Fixing our eyes on Jesus, beholding Him through God's Word. So, being changed, being transformed from glory to glory. In John chapter 1, verse 14 was the focal point there. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the one whose glory John and the apostles saw, and through whose eyes we still behold Him. We saw last week in 1 John, the first four verses, fixing our eyes on Jesus for the very purpose of fellowship.

Fellowship with each other. Fellowship with the Father and with Christ. And John spelled out to us that our joy in Him may be full. Fixing the eyes of our hearts on Jesus, laying aside every hindrance, knowing that He He's already seated, and we're seated there with Him in the heavenlies. Fixing His eyes on the place where we're already seated, knowing one day we'll see Him face to face. Think about this fixing our eyes on Jesus.

It's the thing to do. It is exactly what we need when we're wondering how our kids are going to turn out. When we're concerned about how our kids have already turned out. Fixing our eyes on Jesus when things are really looking up, and not so up. It's the right thing to do, and it's exactly what we need.

It's what our heart is called to by the Lord. When we've got a lot on our mind, and even maybe too much on our mind, fixing our eyes on Jesus, beholding the Lord through His Word. Whether it's day, or night, or any other kind of time. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Lord, as we look at this passage here, how incredible to behold you, to see who you are and what you have done, and to know that in the midst of that, this is also something by which you are going to be transforming us, changing us from glory to glory. because we've held you, fixing our eyes on you, the one with whom we're seated, being occupied with you. We pray that you would draw our hearts, Lord. Focus our minds on that one with whom we're seated, the one in whom we are. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.