Beholding the Lord Through His Word - IV
Hebrews 12:1-2 · Vern Peterman · Mar 24, 2013
Beholding the Lord (2013), No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492634742008

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're completing our mini-series of Beholding the Lord Through His Word, with the theme summarized as seeing the living Word of God in the written Word of God. So we looked at 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all beholding the glory of the Lord, that passage. And then from the Gospel of John, the first chapter, verse 18 verses. In verse 14, we saw His glory, full of grace and truth. And we pointed out it's actually the Greek the grace and the truth definite article there we looked last week at first John 1 1 through 4 we have seen with our eyes the word of life and now today's passage fixing our eyes on Jesus he 12 1 & 2 so we'll finish up our then so the passage that Brad read for us here One of the things we want to note, because we'll be looking at Hebrews shortly, Hebrews is a very special book.

It was written to Jews at a time when the sacrificial system in Jerusalem was still ongoing. It was close to its end, but nonetheless still ongoing at that point in time. Everything was still operational and constructed. As a matter of fact, the improvements, the upgrades to the temple in Jerusalem, which had begun around 20 BC, had just been completed, even though the temple was within a few years going to be destroyed. Isn't that amazing? Now, all 613 laws could at least hypothetically be carried out because you had an operating temple to work with at that point in time. All 613 laws of the Law of Moses.

Many Jews had become believers in Christ were being tempted to drift back under Judaism. and not seeing the significance of Christ. So that's one of the wonderful things about the book of Hebrews, is it points out the uniqueness of Christ. Christ isn't just an add-on, not just sort of a supplement, an option to the law, but in fact is the fulfillment of it. Hebrews also has some unique things about it.

It has a full cargo of nautical terms, that is shipping terms, real interestingly, and we'll take a look at that in a few weeks. It also makes active use of athletic terms, including in this passage, as we'll soon see. One of the things we'll point out here, today's passage, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And that's not the only reference to athletic terms, but it is one of them.

And so we'll be taking a look at that. Our schedule from here through the end of April will look like this. We'll finish off the mini-series of Beholding the Lord Through His Word. We'll be looking seasonally, of course, at the resurrection next Sunday, and then starting in April, a study in the book of Hebrews. And it'll be that particular start.

We'll be looking at the whole book and looking in more detail at the nautical terms in Hebrews, looking in more detail at the athletic terms that were a part of it. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 was written against a background of athletic competition, specifically running is the one that's highlighted there.

I have here some Greek pottery, and of course I have this little label. They ran naked across there on purpose. because they, in fact, did exactly that. They boxed naked. They wrestled naked. That was the typical thing. The Olympics began in 776 BC, actually beginning around the time of Isaiah, interestingly enough. Later, even involved a number of Jews in varying degrees. The Jews would participate. The one thing that they never could quite get into was the, you know, running, boxing, wrestling naked kind of thing. But anyway, the rest of it, they thought pretty interesting.

Now, what happened was Alexander the Great had come in a few centuries before the time of the New Testament. And that exposed the Jews to Greek culture. And so they gravitated towards these athletic terms that you see showing up in the book of Hebrews. In 12 BC, Herod the Great volunteered for the Jews to fund the Olympics. So that also, even though there was a reluctance on the part of the Jews to pay all these taxes, because Herod thought the Jews ought to pay taxes for all sorts of things, that also brought some participation on the part of the Jews and made a part of the setup for this letter here to include a lot of the athletic terms.

If we're going to pay for this, we might as well get involved. And finally, the Hebrews was written to Jews living in the Gentile lands where athletics was a priority. Athletics was a priority. Okay. So one of the things we'll point out in this passage is that between Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, rather than exactly at the verse break, the turning point in the passage is on the word Jesus. The first part before that, having one characteristic, And then the second part having another characteristic. So we'll take a closer look at that in a minute here.

One of the things you have, and this is shown on page one in your handout, matter of fact, in several different slides, the Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 is in what a pattern known as a chiasm. And so that chiasm pattern, what is it? It's a mirror image in written form. That would be a good way to describe it. And we have highlighted this off and on. And this is one of those places where Pattern shows up and what do we mean by that the part?

Before the middle part is what we're called to be doing Laying aside everything that is an incumbents and fixing our eyes on Jesus And then from there the next part is what he did in his doing what Christ did in his doing So that's the second part of this chiasm or this passage here So the first part we could summarize that's our race, okay? And the next part is his race, Christ's race. And see that on the handout. So in this chiasm, one of the points we'll make is the first part and the last part, both actions are in heaven.

Now we need to clarify that since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, what witnesses? And by the way, can we have somebody surrounding us who's in heaven? Yeah, exactly that. And what are the witnesses that he's talking about? Who are they? those are the ones listed in chapter eleven in the great hall of faith that will uh... eventually be getting to and uh... so it's this cloud of old testament saints these are the witnesses he's talking about and none of them are are alive so where are they at this point in time therein heaven and then jesus will sit down at the right hand of the throne of god in now the next thing that uh... that you see there is both lay aside, we are to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which entangles us, and Christ despised the shame.

Both lay aside what would limit progress. And thirdly, the next ones in, both endure what is set before him. Let us run with endurance the race set before us. Christ, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. Endured the cross. And finally in the middle part, this is the emphasis in turning point fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith so that's the pattern that you see here so this word Jesus is a turning point in the passage these words point back therefore since therefore since points back to this chapter 11 those various Old Testament saints and it goes back into the book of Genesis and then proceed through the Old Testament into the Old Testament prophets and that's the ones that are being referred to here it lists a series of those saints and telling what they did and what they endured by faith by faith critical passage on faith since we have such a great cloud now you might you might be wondering what a great cloud of witnesses what is that talking about a lot of Numbers or great numbers in the Saints were often pictured in Scripture all the way going back to the Old Testament and on into the new to the very end of it Because of their mass appearance that shows up as we reference here in Daniel 7 13 Great numbers of the Saints is pictured as a cloud Matthew 24 30 when Jesus Speaks at the the Sermon on the Mount of Olives He refers to a great number of Saints as a cloud And then you see that again in Revelation chapter 1 verse 7.

So that's the picture that's being drawn upon here. Great numbers is pictured as a cloud, a consistent picture throughout scripture. A great number of Old Testament witnesses here from chapter 11 are pictured in 12 verse 1 as so great a cloud of witnesses, referring to the idea that there are many of them, a great number.

Witnesses surrounding, these witnesses often gives the idea of testimony. That's what we think of when we think of witnesses. And we typically think of a legal sense, testifying to something. And so that's often what comes to mind. The Greek word for witnesses can also be martyrs. And in some cases, that's exactly what happened with these witnesses.

And matter of fact, why they're not here is because they lost their life testifying. And we see that in Hebrews chapter 11. But in this case, there are at least spectators. Isn't that interesting? The picture is that these witnesses are spectators now of us in the race. Isn't that interesting? At times we might think, well, what do those people know of what's happening here? The implication from this is that they do.

They do have some knowledge of what's taking place here. in our home study in the book of Ephesians we also saw that even the angels are observing us in the church and learning about God's wisdom as a result of that so this spectating from heaven is actually something that is taught more than once in scripture this being one instance now let us lay aside is the next one here and one of the things I have to point out where it says let us I'll make this broad statement.

Let does not mean allow anywhere from the book of Acts on. Okay. Let does not mean allow anywhere from the book of Acts on. This is actually an imperative. It could be a, you must, or let us all, we all must lay aside every encumbrance. So this is translated from a Greek word that is to cast an invitation, an exhortation, calling the believers to lay aside anything which would hinder their athletic pursuit of the spiritual goal.

As I was thinking about this, I was thinking about on Thursday nights, I go over to Laban and Katie Matthews' house, and they've got these kids, wonderful little kids, but they have this gravitational pull towards my feet. They grab my legs. And so I come, and it's kind of fun, but it's, you know, this kind of thing, and giving them a ride, you know, on my legs. And that's kind of what came to mind.

Let us lay aside every encumbrance, not that kids are that big of an encumbrance, but you get the idea. It's going to slow me down, right? Anything that would slow us down. And in fact, during the Greek races, and as the Jews joined them, The idea, let's get everything off that's going to get in my way. I don't want to be encumbered by anything. Let's get it off. And that's the picture that he uses here. You got a race, you don't want to be carrying a bunch of stuff, okay? You don't want to have anything that's going to hold you back or to limit your performance.

Except for Acts 7.58, interesting pattern in scripture, all use of this word is for setting aside sin. That's the only exception.

And interestingly that you have it on page two of your handout. This one instance is where here's the apostle Paul standing by holding the coats as everybody, the Jews are getting ready to stone Stephen. So act seven 58 and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. This is before he was saved. So that's the one use of the word that's actually something physical. All the rest of the uses. including this one in Hebrews 12 1 refers to setting aside sin lay it aside okay lay it aside okay every encumbrance and the sin was so easily entangles us the word calls to mind here the things that can limit our spiritual progress physically that meant extra body weight and extra clothing you know anything that was going to hold you back especially loose and lengthy garments which were typical of the day right In spiritual terms, it means sins that hinder our fellowship with the Lord in anything in the way.

I think this is something to really look at. In a lot of churches, we're kind of completing a Lenten season. So what do people do? They want to sit there and meditate on their sins. I have no idea why you'd want to do that. So people are meditating on their sins, and basically what this says is, get it out of the way.

The only reason that the Lord is concerned about sin in our life as Christians is not because He's obsessed with sin. It's because He wants to get it out of the way so that He can have fellowship with us. That's why sin is of concern. He wants to fellowship with us and sin just gets in the way. God's not obsessed with sin. He's not focused on sin like that's the most important thing. It's fellowship that's important and sin is just a distraction.

Let us run with endurance the race set before us. These words picture the daily life of we who believe as a long race, in which our endurance is the critical characteristic of our running the race. It kind of pictures the idea of you've got this marathon. Keep your pace for the marathon. If you're going to run a marathon, you don't put on a 60-pound pack. You just don't do that. Dump it. You don't want that. Now if you're going to run this long race, you're going to want to have the endurance and nothing holding you back, nothing that is unnecessary encumbering you.

The author of Hebrews uses a Greek word for set before three times, and here's one of them, each time referring to a necessary goal. And by the way, the author of Hebrews does that uniquely. This word set before in each case has some sort of a spiritual focus instead of something physical so fixing our eyes in the athletic tradition and training the serious competitor would fix his eyes on the goal not only physically but also mentally focusing on that goal and setting aside any mental distraction or competing focus even when what is in front of you does not include the goal, there's still the idea of mentally looking towards the end point. You might be in a long race where it's actually going to be a while before you see the end of it, but you still have your mind focused on that goal, that end point.

You're going to continue to focus on that end point. Paul likewise presented this picture in Philippians 3, 12 and 14. And so we have that picture here, Philippians 3, 12 through 14. Not that I have already obtained or have already become perfect, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. And by the way, that word laid hold of in each case means to take down first prize, to get first prize, okay?

So that's what he's saying here. The goal was the athlete's visual fixed focus and the singular mental focus toward the goal for the prize there. The post at the finish line was the goal toward which the runner or chariot racer in that case would look fixing his eye on it. They would have markers, and we have here, here are the markers. It shows in this relief here. Those are the markers that mark the end line, and so this guy is fixed at that end line. That's where he's setting his mind.

I had a similar kind of example where there was a goal that I didn't see until the very end. Here we are in Colorado, but there was a time when Nancy and I lived in Carson City, Nevada, and what we did, is we would start up a truckie, and a friend and I went from there to Boonville, California. That's where I went to high school. And so for three days, we rode our bicycles across the state of California.

We didn't see the goal until the end, but we were mentally focused on that goal the whole time. So we rode for, on our road bikes, we rode for over 100 miles each day, okay? Mentally focusing on that goal each time even though we didn't see it until the very end 300 miles Okay Why do we talk about that because we're fixing fixing not our physical eyes on Jesus here But we are fixing our mental and spiritual eyes upon Jesus Whom we also will not see until the very end right just like that road race. I was telling you about about on the bicycle we didn't see it until the very end and with Christ we're fixing our eyes on him spiritually and mentally even though we won't see him physically until the very end fixing our eyes on Jesus so there's another biblical principle behind these words here and I don't mean principle like in the school a biblical principle in the same way that human beings have senses for perceiving the physical world Scripture also says that we're equipped with senses for seeing the spiritual world, but the ability to sense varies between one person and the next. What do I mean by that? Here we have the five senses in the physical realm, and believers and unbelievers do not have the same spiritual capacity.

Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, and it's not these, okay? 1 Peter 2, 3, you have tasted There's the reference there in scripture, and it's not the only one, to tasting spiritually. Hebrews 5, 11 through 14 refers to dull of hearing. So here is the spiritual sense. He's not talking about the physical ears. He's talking about spiritual ears. Second Corinthians 2, 14 through 16, the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him. So there's the sense of smell. And finally, Ephesians 4, 19, being past feeling.

And we could give other references, but you get the general idea. We have this picture here. In the physical realm, we have the five senses. We have a physical being. And then in the spiritual realm, we have a being as well. We have five senses also spiritually. There's an analog or a comparable sense to each of the five senses in the spiritual realm. So now.

Jesus is not only the one on whom we fix our spiritual focus with the eyes of our heart, again, here's the spiritual reference to the ability to see, but the center point and turning point of this passage. Through a great variety of things will happen to us in this life, and a great many things will grab for our attention. Have you noticed that? A great many things grab for our attention, Our call is clear. The focus is on Jesus. The focus is on Jesus. One way to look at it is a great many people go through life entirely distracted, never seeing Christ as the focus. That's one way to look at the unbelieving world.

They are entirely distracted from what matters. One of the things I'll see, I'll see it in movies, I'll see it on TV shows, and it really bothers me. You see somebody apparently driving and they're not paying any attention to what's in front of them. They're having conversations with this person, looking sideways for 10-15 seconds at a time. And that really bothers me. I'm just like, look at the road! And what happens is that's just displaying this distraction principle.

And really if you look at it, those who continue through life as unbelievers are completely and entirely distracted from what matters. It's, look in front of you! What really matters is what's right in front of you. And that's why there can be concern when we know somebody has not come to a knowledge of the Lord, and they're getting towards what's obviously the end. Right? Our call is clear.

The focus is Jesus. We're not to be distracted, but keeping our eyes on Him. So, Jesus is the turning point here in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. From here, the author of Hebrews turns from the key aspects of our race, our running, the spiritual race, ending with fixing our eyes on Jesus, to Jesus himself and his race.

What does his race look like? He ran a race so that we could be running a race. Do you realize that if he didn't run his race, we couldn't run ours? For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, his race, So that what? So that we could even be in the race. So that we could even be in the race.

Hebrews 12.1, our race, had not even a chance if Christ didn't run his race first. Jesus himself, who he is and what he has done and what he is doing, as he does so, he pictures Christ as having run that spiritual race as well he did run the race and he's done he sat down he's done with his race but we're not done with ours and so what do we do between now and the time we're done with ours we fix our eyes on Jesus that's what we do we're not distracted we're not distracted we fix our eyes on Jesus because he ran a race so that we could run ours everything in Judaism that was tempting the Jews to slide back into its grasp, the author of Hebrews had a clear, singular answer, Jesus. In one way, this is real simple. I'll tell you a little story.

My dad is one of these engineering geniuses from years past. Back in the days when you did calculations with a slide rule, he had his slide rule memorized so he didn't need one. If you ever used to, I mean, the logarithmic scale, he could slip it back and forth. And I'd have races with him sometimes. I'd pull out my calculator. I said, Dad, give me the fifth root of 3.149. And he didn't have it before I did, to three or four significant figures. He'd slip it around his head. Ding! That's it. He's got it. He's got it figured. Immense complexity. And so our kids would be amazed and baffled when they would go and ask him some question.

Something as simple as, Grandpa, could you turn the light on? Guess what? You didn't get the light turned on. You got the whole explanation of how the power plant worked and what the resistance losses were between the power plant and the home and how they had to change the characteristics of the current. immense complexity. All I wanted was the light on, right?

Here is the author of Hebrews giving it to us straight and simple. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Straight and simple. Not like my dad's answers. To everything in our own past that tempts us to slide back into its grasp. Do you have something in your past that grabs you? Boy, that's got my attention. I'm looking back at this and that. As I'm running the race, boy, I've got to keep looking behind me. And boy, that grabs my attention. That's what was happening with the Jews. Their past was in Judaism. And it got their attention. And they were tempted to fall back within its grasp.

And the author of Hebrews is saying, wait. Don't get distracted. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. The author of Hebrews is a clear, singular, simple answer, Jesus. Focus our eyes on Him. Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. To author something is to be its source and to begin it, right? And to perfect something is to bring it to completion, defined by Since it's perfecter, a complete and supreme quality. He began it. He ended it.

He is the one who begins our faith. He is the one who is the end of our faith. In fact, that sounds like the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, doesn't it? He is from A to Z. He is the A to Z of our faith. The author and perfecter of faith. Christ is both of those things. He's the start and He's the finish, and everything in between. He defines how and why we're Christians today. He will define what it will mean for us to be in Him. And even when this world's days are but gone, it'll be Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. He's the one who's going to pull it off.

Now about this thing called faith, By nature, human beings are creatures of faith. We are, even those who don't believe. Even the outspoken atheist and agnostic is a person of great faith. Everybody, by nature, puts their faith in something. The world's going to give us a lot of different options for that, things to put our faith in.

And the advertisements on the television, the radio, magazines, billboards, they're trying to sell you on something to put your faith in, aren't they? There's only one object of our ultimate faith that is worthy from start to finish, the author and perfecter, and that's Jesus. The one author and the perfecter of faith who has finished his race, he did it. He completed the race. All he asks is we keep looking at him. Keep looking at him.

So what motivated Jesus to die on the cross for our sins? Was He just some sort of ultimate glutton for punishment? Was He just pressured into it by God the Father and God the Holy Spirit? Well, okay, I guess so. Was that how it happened? For the joy set before Him endured the cross. He was motivated by joy. This verse tells us something phenomenal. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Go ahead and put those nails in and I'll take the sins of the whole world upon myself and I'll do it. Why? For the joy set before him. Joy? How can that be joyous? It's what comes after.

It's the fellowship. despising the shame the greek word here translated despising means in this context to count the shame is not even worthy of consideration here jesus who could with a word vaporize the roman soldiers that put the nails in instead said let's do this essentially let's let's do this let's do this the shame don't even consider it So was the cross shameful? Oh yeah.

It was Rome's billboard that said, don't mess with Rome. You don't want to be in the position that this crucified person is in. It was exceedingly shameful and it was intended to be so. The one evidence of crucifixion that we have left over was found in Jerusalem a few decades back. That's the one with the nails going through the heel bone there. It was painful, and yes, very, very shameful. Intentionally so. Was the cross shameful? Very much so.

He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. That word translated as sat down is in the perfect tense. And a completed past action with ongoing results into the future. He sat down completely. Ongoing results impacting you and me. Jesus Christ has taken that seat of authority at the right hand, that is the hand of power and the hand of salvation of God. So this message is given in a prophetic and messianic psalm, Psalm 110. It is the most quoted New Testament verse out of the Old Testament.

It's also the very place where each believer is blessed and seated with Christ right now. He sat down at the right hand of God where you also are seated. He sat down at the right hand of God where you also have your citizenship. It's also the place where we have our blessing.

Ephesians 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 2.6 talks about where we're seated. with Christ Hebrews 12 to them says that Christ is already right now seated there in the heavenlies which is why we who believe can be seated there with him and why we can behold him right next to it right there spiritually we're already seated with Christ and can behold him spiritually So what's the reason that you and I have been seated with Christ in the heavenlies, where you're in Christ? The reason?

Ephesians 2.7, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. That's where we put our focus on Jesus. That's where we're seated. That's where we're blessed. So what purpose could there be in it?

Well, so that in the ages to come. This is just getting ready time. All this time here, a lot of people will look on, you know, my life goes from birth to death and that's how everything's defined. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is time where we're getting ready for what's next. We've got ages and ages to come. And so we're, we're getting ready for that. That's what this time is all about. Getting ready. Okay. If your life is getting towards the last half, mine probably is right. If your life is getting towards the last half, guess what? You're close to the end of the getting ready time. That's all.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus by beholding him through God's written word and so being changed from glory to glory. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the one whose glory John and the apostles saw and through whose eyes we still behold him even now. Fixing our eyes on Jesus is for the purpose of fellowship The purpose of fellowship. Fellowship with each other and with the Father and with Him. 1st John 1 1 through 4, that our joy in Him may be full. Our joy in Him may be full. Fixing our hearts on Jesus, laying aside every hindrance, knowing that He's already seated and we are seated with Him in the heavenlies. Hebrews 12 1 and 2.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus through all sorts of things in life. Lots of different things. Things that are good, things that are bad, things that we like, things we don't like. Fixing our eyes on Jesus in all sorts of circumstances. Fixing our eyes on Him. The one who for the joy set before Him endured the cross and has sat down. The one who endured the cross for you and for me.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we Complete this mini-series that we can indeed be beholding you. That we can indeed be walking in fellowship with you. Beholding, using God's glory growth tool, your written word, by your intent. And it doesn't just stop there. You have an eternal purpose for these things. We're being transformed. We're getting ready. for the time that really matters, the ages to come, when you will show your amazing grace to us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.