Please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, I'll start reading in verse 1. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.
For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.
Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank You again for this Sabbath day.
We thank You for the rest that You provide to us, this down payment of the eternal rest to come. and how we praise you, God Almighty, for the gospel of our Lord Jesus. We thank you for so great a salvation. We thank you, Lord God, that though we were dead in our trespasses and sins, you made us alive together with Christ. We acknowledge it is by grace we have been saved.
We thank you for the gifts of faith and repentance, and we thank you for everything necessary for our salvation. As Paul says, you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, and in this we greatly rejoice. We ask now that the Holy Spirit would guide us as we look to Scripture. We pray that we would understand these things and that it would be a great source of blessing for our hearts. as we ponder the Lord Jesus Christ, as we hear from the Apostle the necessity to run with endurance, all the while looking unto Jesus.
We ask that you would forgive us now for all of our sins and our transgressions, that you would wash us in that fount of blood that is open for sin and uncleanness. We thank you, Lord God, for these mercies. We thank you for your graces. We thank you, God, for these times that we can spend together in your presence, in your court, And we ask now that you would be glorified and honored, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit would be exalted in this meeting here tonight.
And we pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, last week we looked specifically at Hebrews 12, verse 1. We noted the specific command or the specific duty stated. The Apostle tells us in the middle there, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. This is a recurring emphasis throughout the book of Hebrews.
The Apostle writes to those who are suffering persecution, those who are suffering trial and tribulation, and he wants to encourage them to run with endurance the race that is set before them. They are also being pressured. I believe it was this morning, Pastor Porter, had referenced the reality that there was pressure placed upon the Jewish Christians in the first century. You need to understand that if I am a Jew and I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that doesn't mean the entirety of the Jewish nation has done so.
The temple was still standing, the sacrificial system was still in play, and so there would be a lot of pressure placed upon the Jewish Christians to come back to the temple, to come back to Moses, to come back to the Levitical system. That's what the apostasy passengers are dealing with primarily. Certainly it deals with sin and an utter defection because of other lusts or whatnot, but it's those persons who had tasted something of the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus and then had abandoned that, had turned from it, and went back to those old covenant shadows and pictures or types. So in this section, He engages, or He tells, or He exhorts the people to run with endurance the race that is set before us.
He gives a series of incentives. We looked at the first incentive last week, or incitement perhaps might be a better word. He says in verse 1, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. That's an incentive for us.
And as we pointed out, it's a cloud of witnesses. It's not a cloud of spectators. It's not as if there's an amphitheater where Abel and Enoch and Moses and Abraham are all up there sort of rooting for us and urging us on in this race. They're not spectators watching over the people of God on the earth. but rather they are witnesses, and the thing that they witness is that God is faithful.
In each of the instances outlined in Hebrews chapter 11, in all of the various circumstances, the sufferings, the trials, the persecution, the people of God in Old Covenant times stood fast and ran with endurance because God is faithful. So we are to run with endurance the race that is set before us because we have this great cloud of witnesses.
Looking unto Jesus: The Activity
But then the second incentive is what we'll look at this evening, looking unto Jesus. So we've got this amphitheater with all these witnesses who maintain a faithful testimony concerning the faithfulness of God. But our focus is not on Abel. Our focus is not on Enoch.
Our focus is not on Abraham or on Moses. When we run with endurance the race that is set before us, we are to do so looking unto Jesus. That's where the Apostle directs our gaze. That's where the Apostle has us. to find strength and aid and power and endurance for the race that is set before us.
So we'll look at two things particularly this evening. First, the specific activity involved, and then secondly, the particular focus, or the things that we ought to observe concerning this looking unto Jesus. But in the first place, he says, looking. And this means to look away from one thing and concentrate on another, to look away to.
So it's not just stop looking at yourself, that's a good thing, but you also must look on to Jesus. Looking away to Jesus gets the focus off of self and on to Christ where it belongs. In other words, the strength that we find for the Christian race that is set before us does not come from within. It's not a willpower.
It's not a knuckle under. It's not a tighten up your shoelaces and do a better job. That's not where we derive strength for the Christian race. We derive strength for the Christian race from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And that is the emphasis. The believer is surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who continually testify to him that God is indeed faithful. But the believer is instructed not to look at them. but he is instructed to look at Jesus. John Owen says, and therefore their, speaking of the witnesses in verse 1, and therefore their faith is only proposed unto us for our imitation.
His person is proposed unto us as a ground also of hope and expectation. He adds, Wherefore, the Lord Jesus is not proposed here unto us as a mere example to be considered by us, but as Him also in whom we place our faith, trust, and confidence, with all our expectation of success in our Christian course. Without this faith and trust in Him, we shall have no benefit or advantage by His example. So in other words, if you are struggling, and this chapter deals with those who are struggling.
Notice verse 12, "...therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed." The fact that he exhorts them this way indicates that this was a problem. The fact that there are several repetitious exhortations to be faithful, to maintain fidelity, to have confidence, to have boldness, would indicate that they were suffering, would indicate that they were having trials and difficulties. So if you find yourself in like circumstances, you're struggling in the Christian race, You're struggling to run with endurance the race that is set before you. You're struggling to be faithful.
You're struggling in your Bible reading. You're struggling in your praying. You're struggling in your church attendance. You're struggling in maintaining that enduring run. then what's the recommendation or what's the exhortation of the prescription?
It's not to look deeper into your own soul. It's not to ponder your strengths. It's not to consider those things that you're really good at. Rather, it is to be looking unto Jesus.
That's where the Christian race is fought and won. It's as we look unto Christ, as not only an example, as Owen points out. It's not just a mere example, but He is the object of our hope. He is the object of our expectation.
He is ultimately the object of our faith. So we run with endurance, looking unto Jesus.
Five Things to Observe about Jesus
Now note the particular focus, and there are five things we ought to tease out with reference to the particular focus. Five things, he states, concerning Jesus. So you say, okay, I'm looking unto Jesus, now what? Well, you ought to ponder, you ought to consider, you ought to contemplate, you ought to meditate upon, you ought to roll over in your head the various things that the Apostle draws out in this one brief verse.
The Person of Christ
In the first place, we are to focus upon the person of Christ. Notice, he says, looking unto Jesus. Jesus is referenced by name several times in this epistle. You can look at 2.9.
Hebrews chapter 2, verse 9. But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. Notice in 4.14, seeing then that we have a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Notice in Hebrews 7, verse 22, by so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
And then again in Hebrews 10, verse 19, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, This leads O'Brien to make this observation. The use of this name, Jesus, emphasizes his humanity, particularly his endurance of pain, humiliation, and the disgrace of the cross. And all of that will follow after he references here, looking unto Jesus. So you see, there is joy in the sight, or there is joy by looking at Christ in His humanity, in the Incarnation, in what He took on in terms of our essential properties and our common infirmities, yet except sin.
It is good for the soul of a man to identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in His Person. That blessed reality that God, the Second Person of the Trinity, comes down. He takes on our nature. He takes on our flesh.
He goes through everything we go through. And in fact, that's one of the emphases in our passage. He had shame. He had to endure a cross.
He had issues. He had challenges. He had trials. Remember last week when we looked at the various persons in this great cloud of witnesses.
You say, well, I have such a difficult home life. Look at Abel. He witnesses that God is faithful in the midst of trials and a difficult home life. You say, well, we live in a godless society and it's so challenging to be holy.
It's so challenging to be upright. It's so challenging to be godly. Well, look at Noah. Noah testifies that God is faithful even in the midst of a godless society.
You say, well, nobody really knows the sufferings and the trials and the difficulties I have. The Lord Jesus Christ does. The Lord Jesus Christ has gone through worse than what we go through. The Lord Jesus Christ identified with us fully, and the Lord Jesus Christ lived as a man in this world.
He says, the foxes have their holes, and the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Isaiah the prophet tells us he would be identified as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You see what the author's great intention is here. Run with endurance the race that is set before you.
Listen to those great cloud of witnesses as they in concert and with unanimity continually testify that God is faithful, but your eyes of faith must be rooted upon Jesus. You must be looking to the One that identified with us, who has gone on before us and is now sat down at the right hand of the majesty of God on high. As well, the name Jesus not only points to His humanity, but to His specific role as Savior. Remember the announcement concerning the birth of our Lord in Matthew chapter 1.
It was told that you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will do what? It is He who will save His people from their sin. You need that, brethren, as you're running with endurance the race that is set before you. You need to focus upon Jesus.
You need to think about that blessed Son of God, that blessed Son of Man. You need to ponder the reality that this Christ is the one who saves us from our sins.
Author and Finisher of Our Faith
Notice, secondly, he highlights the work of Christ in a way that perhaps we may not have, or at least the way I'm categorizing it. But notice, he says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Owen again says, from our companions in believing, the great cloud of witnesses, he leads us onto the author and the finisher of our faith. So there is something radically different about Jesus.
The great cloud of witnesses testify to the faithfulness of God, and they ought not to be shunned. But we ought to be looking unto Jesus. And what is ascribed to Him? He is the author and the finisher of our faith.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the forerunner. He is the example for His people in the life of faith. The Lord Jesus, by His work, as Owen says, procured this grace for us. In other words, He is the author of the faith that we presently have.
That means it comes from Him. It doesn't come from us. When that thief on the cross gazed at Christ and he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom, it wasn't something inherent in the thief. It wasn't something good that was bubbling up from his heart.
It was a gift of God. It was a blessing from God. It was a grace given to him so that he would see with the eyes of faith the glory of the Messiah. And we need to appreciate that.
We need to understand the crucial emphasis. Christ gave us faith, and Christ will bring that faith unto completion. Look at the text. He is the author and the finisher of it.
What do you think that means? Have you ever gotten to say, oh, Thursday, and thought, I'm never going to make it to heaven? Oh, not me. I only have strong, confident faith.
OK, well, I'm preaching to the few of us that struggle. I don't know if I can run with endurance the race that is set before me. I don't know if I can continue to fight sin and resist temptation. I don't know if I can continue to deal with the people in my life that are very difficult to deal with.
I don't know if I'm going to make it to heaven. The apostle tells us, you're going to make it to heaven. And it's not because of grit, it's not because of determination, it's not because of goodness in you, but it's because of Him who began this good work in you, He will complete it unto the day of Christ. He is both author and finisher.
Wouldn't that help you run a physical race if you knew you were going to win? Wouldn't it? I mean, if you knew you had the competition B, you're all up on the starting line, everybody's doing their last stretches before they actually start off on the run, and you know you've got it in the bag, what's that going to do for you when you're running? You're going to run with endurance, the race that is set before you, with this confident expectation that you are going to win.
This is what you have in Christ Jesus. This is what we have as believers. It's not a temporary faith. He doesn't author a faith for us that arrives on Sunday, only to be lost on Thursday.
He is both author and finisher. He is both the originator and the completer. Because of what Christ has accomplished and the benefits He has secured, and the grace of God that has come to us, It is in the bag. Run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus, who both not only brought your faith into existence, but has secured that faith, and will secure that faith, unto the day when He returns again.
You see, believers need that encouragement. We need to come to passages like these, especially on the Thursday when we're having the struggles and the difficulties and the trials. We need to come to passages like these when it feels as if our faith is wavering. We need to get a renewed sense of the reality that Christ gave us this to begin with, and Christ is not going to take it away.
Paul argues in Romans 8 in a similar manner. He doesn't use the same terminology, but he says that God, who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? In other words, Paul's argument in Romans 8 is that if God put Christ on the cross, which is the specifics of the situation, right? I mean, we know the Romans were the instrumental means, and we know the Jews were the ones that were crying out, crucify Him, crucify Him.
But who was ultimately responsible for Christ going to the cross? The prophet Isaiah tells us that Yahweh was pleased to bruise Him, the servant of the Lord. The Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 2 tells us that the cross was according to what? The predetermined plan of God Most High.
So if Christ was going to go to that length on our behalf, if Christ would do this as author and finisher for us, then we need to be encouraged by us. So Paul uses that in Romans 8. If God did the greater, If God delivered up His Son, then God's going to give you what you need on Thursday. Does everybody understand that?
That should encourage you. The Lord God who begins this doesn't leave you to your own resources. The Lord God who begins this doesn't leave you on your own. Owen draws this implication concerning Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith.
He says it is a mighty encouragement. I like that phrase. We need mighty encouragements. I don't know what brother put ice in there, but that was very, very nice.
I told you about Pastor Downing one time preaching at an outdoor meeting, and it was about 100 degrees out, and everybody's out there sweating and sweltering, and he just slowly empties this glass of water. Everybody's standing there, sitting there, just gazing at that. So I didn't mean to do that with you, but I've never had ice before, and that's a good thing. Owen says, it is a mighty encouragement unto constancy and perseverance in believing that He in whom we do believe is the author and finisher of our faith.
He both begins it in us and carries it on unto perfection. So run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. If He has created it in you, if He has gifted it to you, if He has originated it in your heart, He will see it to the very end. This ought to help promote a faithful running of the Christian race.
The Resolve of Christ
The third thing we ought to observe about Jesus is His resolve. His resolve. Isn't that what we're being exhorted to in this chapter? Aren't we essentially being told to resolve?
To endure? To suffer the hardship? To go through it manfully? To go through it in a manner that is consistent with God's will for His people?
He tells us concerning Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. There's a resolution there. There's a resolve, there's a determination, there's an endurance built in to Jesus' work. He has this joy set before Him, and as a result of having this joy set before Him, He endures the cross.
He endures, He perseveres, He runs with endurance the race that is set before Him. Some say that this means that instead of enjoying the glory of heaven and living comfortably in this world, he endured the cross. I don't think that's what's in view. I think it means that he endured the cross in order to obtain the joy set before him. specifically the glory of God and the salvation of His people.
In other words, Jesus comes from heaven, He takes on our flesh, He identifies with us in all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, He identifies with us, and for the joy that is set before Him, He endures all that He goes through. He presses on. He sees the reward. In this, he is like Moses.
Remember Moses? He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to endure the passing pleasures of sin. Why? Because Moses saw there was virtue in suffering?
No. He looked to the reward. He considered the esteem of Christ as much greater. He considered the reality of heaven as far more excellent.
And the same is the case with our Lord. He endures the suffering, He endures the shame, He endures all of these issues because He knows there is joy at the end of His race. What's the pattern in view? There's a cross prior to the crown.
We are to endure the Christian life, or run with endurance the Christian race, because we note that pattern. There is a cross, but then the crown comes. And that's how the text unfolds before our eyes. But listen, Owen says, herein is the Lord Christ, our great example, in that He was influenced and acted in all that He did and suffered by a continual respect unto the glory of God and the salvation of the church.
Isn't that beautiful? Why did Jesus do what he did? for the glory of God and the salvation of the church. Why did he endure the shame? Why did he endure the suffering?
Why did he endure the Roman hand slapped on his face? Why did he endure all that? Because he had an object in view. He saw the glory of God and the salvation of the church.
C. H. Spurgeon says this concerning this passage. He says, now this is the joy which Christ felt.
It was the joy of feeding us with the bread of heaven. Spurgeon certainly was beautiful with the language. This is the joy which Christ felt. It was the joy of feeding us with the bread of heaven, the joy of clothing poor naked sinners in his own righteousness, the joy of finding mansions in heaven for homeless souls, of delivering us from the prison of hell and giving us the eternal enjoyments of heaven.
You need to look at Jesus in that light. You need to consider the reality that for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross.
The Suffering of Christ
And that brings us, fourthly, to consider His suffering. The reference to cross, the reference to shame ought to suggest to us the sufferings of our Lord Jesus. We'll take up the shame in the first place. We see that in our text.
Despising the shame, the shame associated with the cross. You know, today people wear the cross as an object of jewelry. People decorate their Bible covers with crosses. People decorate churches with crosses.
You wouldn't have done that in the first century. Any more than during the post-Second World War, you would decorate your house with pictures of Dachau or Auschwitz. You just wouldn't do that. I've never visited someone's home and saw a picture of an electric chair on their wall.
People don't do that. Well, had you decorated your buildings with crosses in the first century, it would have felt something like that. The cross was a shameful thing. The cross was reserved for the most notorious criminals in the empire.
In fact, the cross was not used for Roman citizens without special authorization from the emperor, because it was such a shameful thing. The death of Christ involved extreme suffering, but it also involved, or it included rather, great shame. Philip Hughes reminds us, it is important to recognize that the shame of the cross, where Christ bore the sins of the world, is infinitely more intense than simply the pain of the cross. Others have suffered the pain of crucifixion, but He alone has endured the shame of human depravity in all its foulness and degradation. preaching a sermon on Hebrews 12, 2, which as I remember when I read it originally, the author, rather the editor, said that C.
H. Spurgeon couldn't finish the sermon. The title of the sermon was The Suffering Servant or The Shameful Sufferer, and he deals with Hebrews 12, 2, and he couldn't finish the sermon because he was let out. So I understand that he couldn't continue because he was so gripped with the reality of it all and he was in tears and he couldn't keep preaching.
But he highlights several aspects concerning the shame involved in the crucifixion. He says, first, his shameful accusation, and I didn't get this from Spurgeon, just using his heads here, but consider the reality that a righteous man, a perfect man, A lawful man was accused of having violated the law. This is a shameful accusation to say that he forbid paying taxes to Caesar. I mean, it doesn't even make sense with the gospel narratives because Jesus did say, whose inscription is on the coin?
Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Give to God what is God's. It was a shameful accusation. He then says there was a shameful mockery The shameful mockery of our beloved Lord.
They made fun of Him. They slapped Him on the face. They said, if you think you're a king, they rip off His garments, and they put this purple robe, and they give Him this reed, and they're beating on Him. They're mocking the Savior.
They're mocking the Son of God. They're mocking the Darling of Heaven. I mean, we don't like it when somebody doesn't smile at us. We have a bad day if we think just for a moment somebody didn't esteem us as we are fit and worthy.
And yet he's mocked by vile men. And then he highlights his shameful crucifixion, the reality that he bore the suffering on the cross. But one part in particular I want to draw our attention to because I think it goes unnoticed by us most of the time. It's in the gospel record.
It's in the narrative. It's in the passion narrative, specifically in John 19. It tells us they ripped Jesus' clothes off of him. Just imagine the shame involved.
I'm not trying to work on emotions. I'm just trying to bring out what the author means here in despising the shame. Spurgeon says, the person of Christ was stripped twice. And although our painters, for obvious reasons, cover Christ upon the cross, there he hung, the naked savior of a naked race.
I don't think our painters should paint Jesus in the first place. But what he says is accurate. Whenever you see a picture, and I don't encourage you to go out and look for them, there's always something covering the Lord Jesus. And this is what he highlights in this respect.
Although our painters, for obvious reasons, cover Christ upon the cross, there He hung, the naked Savior of a naked race. He who had clothed the lilies had not wherewith to clothe Himself. He who had clothed the earth with jewels and made for it robes of emeralds, had not so much as a rag to conceal his nakedness from a staring, gazing, mocking, hard-hearted crowd. He had made coats of skins for Adam and Eve when they were naked in the garden.
He had taken from them those poor fig leaves with which they sought to hide their nakedness, given them something wherewith they might wrap themselves from the cold. But now they part His garments among them, and for His vesture do they cast lots, while He Himself, exposed to the pitiless storm of contempt, hath no cloak with which to cover His shame. Calvin and Pink make this observation in John 19 as well. Calvin said, Let us also learn that Christ was stripped of His garments, that He might clothe us with a righteousness, that His naked body was exposed to the insults of men, that we may appear in glory before the judgment seat of God.
A.W. Pink, the sinful first Adam was clothed by God. The sinless last Adam was unclothed by wicked men. See, I think we don't ponder that, do we?
You know, we think, wow, I just had a rotten day. Four people didn't, you know, celebrate me. They didn't throw me parties. They didn't smile at me and say how wonderful it is to see you.
Brethren, we haven't even begun to enter in to what our Savior went through on our behalf. He endured the cross, despising the shame. He goes through this for the glory of God and for the salvation of His church. You see, when the Apostle tells us to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, when he tells us to run with endurance the race that is set before us, we need to do so looking unto this Jesus.
And when we get our noses bent out of shape, or when we think persons haven't esteemed us as they ought, Let us reflect upon the man of sorrows and the one acquainted with grief. Let us reflect upon the passion narratives, where they ripped the clothing off our Savior, and they hung Him naked there in the sunshine. They hung Him naked there, and they spit on Him, and they mock Him, and they say things like, Oh, He saved others, but He can't save Himself. Irony among ironies is that He was saving in the very act, or in the very moment that they are contemning Him.
Brethren, we need to get our eyes off of ourselves, our eyes off of our little problems, our first world problems. I mean, when you think about it, brethren, the sorts of things that we have to suffer. Mr. Kroll told me this morning when he was visiting in Haiti, brethren met in 40 degree weather in a tin hut.
I mean, even if we didn't have air conditioning, we ought to be thankful campers that we're not in a tin hut. And he said they were happy to be there, clothed for the Lord's Day, celebrating the glory of God Most High. Boy, if something happens to us where our creature comforts aren't met and exceeded, we're just thrown off. We have a miserable time at it.
We just can't worship when it's 40 degrees. Why not? Who do we think we are? We need to run with endurance the race that is set before us.
We need to get our eyes off of ourselves and our problems, and we need to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the One who not only originated it, but the One who has purpose to bring it unto completion. We need to look at the One, who for the joy that was set before Him. Brethren, be reminded there's joy at the end of your course. When it comes to Thursday or when it comes to Tuesday and there's some sin presenting itself, be a Moses.
Be a Christ. Don't engage in the passing pleasures of sin in the thought that this is going to satisfy me, this is going to make it all nice and well and comfortable and warm. No, resist it. Esteem the riches of Christ far more excellent than anything that this world has to offer.
This is how you use the book of Hebrews. You draw out the doctrine, you look at the particular exhortations, and you get your mind rooted upon these witnesses in terms of what they bore up under, and yet their unanimous consent is that God is faithful. But you look unto Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. We look at the shame a little bit.
Now, what about the cross? It's a quote I always read, or not always, but most times. It's from D.A. Carson's commentary on the Gospel of John, just a description of what the cross is all about.
Again, on Thursday when you have a pity party for yourself and you think that nobody is being nice to you as they ought, consider what Jesus went through on your behalf. In the ancient world, this most terrible of punishments is always associated with shame and horror. It was so brutal that no Roman citizen could be crucified without the sanction of the emperor, stripped naked and beaten to pulpy weakness. You've got to remember, Jesus was beaten twice.
There were two scourgings. After the decision was made to crucify, then the brutal scourging began. Remember, when Pilate had him initially scourged, it was to appease the mob. Pilate thought, if we whip him, they'll be satisfied, they'll see some blood, they'll get their bloodlust indulged, and off they'll go.
Well, once the decision is made to crucify, then the beating begins. Does everybody know that? There were two whippings involved in our beloved Lord. And that whipping consisted of a leather strap with bone and rock and jagged things in it, so that when it went into the flesh, it caught and it was ripped out to leave those stripes.
Remember the prophet Isaiah said, by his stripes we are healed? That wasn't the ensign on his collar in his military service, it was that back that had been opened up and plowed up for his people. He says, stripped naked and beaten to pulpy weakness, the victim could hang in the hot sun for hours, even days. To breathe, it was necessary to push with the legs and pull with the arms to keep the chest cavity open and functioning.
This is the purpose for that little piece of wood at the base of the feet. That wasn't a mercy. That prolonged the agony. You see, the method of death on the cross was asphyxiation.
And so as long as you could adjust yourself a little bit, you could gasp in gulps of air. So that little piece of wood, the sedecula, at the bottom of the feet was not there to be a mercy for that person. So they'd have a fighting chance. No, it was to prolong the agony so they could push off of it and gasp some breath to sustain their lives so that they could go on and suffer.
He says, "'Terrible muscle spasm wracked the entire body, but since collapse meant asphyxiation, the strain went on and on. This is also why the sedecula prolonged life in agony. It partially supported the body's weight and therefore encouraged the victim to fight on.'" That's why they didn't have to break his legs. You know why they broke the legs of people?
To finish it. They broke the legs so that they could no longer gasp for air. When they come to Jesus, they see that He's dead. There was no need to break His legs, and this, obviously, fulfills Scripture.
But that's the purpose. They break the legs to bring about death, to get on with their day. Not with Christ. Prolonged suffering.
He ultimately dies. They don't need to break His legs. So you see what the author is telling us. And again, put it in the larger context of the book of Hebrews.
Several times in the book, you need to press on, you need to endure, you need to be faithful. You need to run with endurance the race that is set before you. What's the best thing to do when you're running with endurance? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.
But he doesn't end there.
The Exaltation of Christ
Notice, fifthly, he speaks of the exaltation of Christ. and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This helps runners. This helps runners who are looking unto Jesus to remember what happened to Jesus. Yes, He died.
Yes, He was buried. Yes, He rose again on the third day. And now He's enthroned at the right hand of the majesty of God on high. That's what you need to keep in your focus.
This may be a miserable life for you. You know, when Joel Osteen says, your best life now, the more accurate depiction from the New Testament would be to say, your worst life now. In other words, when you identify with the Lord of glory in a God-hating world, it's going to hurt to some degree or other. There is going to be suffering, there's going to be pain, there's going to be hardship.
When you live amongst a people that despise God and His Christ, do you actually think they're going to like you? Do you actually think they're going to fawn all over you? Do you actually think they're going to approve of you? When you stand up and you say, I think abortion's murder, it's wrong, it's godless, it's wicked, do you think they're going to congratulate you?
Absolutely not. They hate God, they hate all that God stands for, and as a result, they hate the people of God. As Edward said, the idea of martyrdom is simply this. Sinners cannot ascend the throne of God and take Him from it and throw Him to the ground and murder Him.
So they murder His people. It's a substitutionary thing for them. They can't get God, so they'll get God's people. But you need to realize that after the suffering comes the exaltation.
And He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So run with endurance the race that is set before you, realizing there's a cross involved in that race, realizing that it means pain, that it means suffering, that it means hardship. Why would He tell us to run with endurance? You see, if the Christian life was our best life now, why would we need endurance?
Do you need endurance to be happy? Do you need endurance to be, you know, catered to? Do you need endurance when you go out at the restaurant and they're just bringing dish after dish after dish and serving you like you're the king of England? I mean, no, you don't need endurance.
The whole emphasis in our passage, the whole emphasis in the context, is suffering and persecution and trial. And He says to them in chapter 10, you have joyfully received the plundering of your goods. These people knew what it was to suffer. They need to run with endurance still, and they need to look unto Jesus.
They need to realize that the cross always precedes the crown, but the crown is always a reality. There is always the benefit and the blessing and the glorification that God gives to His people. The allusion here is to Psalm 110, verse 1. It's alluded to in Hebrews 1, 3 and 13, Hebrews 5, 6, Hebrews 5, 10, 6, 20, 7, 3, 17, 21, 8, 1, 10, 12, and 13.
What do you think the author wants them to consider? Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Run with endurance the race that is set before you. Remember the fact that He endured the cross, but realize that he's been exalted to the right hand of the throne of God.
Application: Run, Looking unto Jesus
So brethren, I leave you with this. Run. Run. You have to run.
You have to run. You have to run. You have to do it with endurance. You have to listen to that great cloud of witnesses.
You've got to hear Abel. You've got to hear Enoch. You've got to hear Abraham. You've got to hear Moses.
You've got to listen to them, and their consistent, unanimous testimony that God is faithful. But you've got to look unto Jesus. How do you do that? Is it an actual physical race?
Do you go to the local park and run around the block and, hey, I'm looking? You do it through Scripture. You run with endurance the race that is set before you by learning more of Christ. You do it through prayer.
You do it through the public means. You do it by taking the bread and the wine. This is how you look unto Jesus. What does the bread and the wine remind you of?
He endured the cross! This is a means by which runners are refreshed so they'll continue to run. Don't absent yourselves from these means. Don't absent yourself from the house of God.
Do not miss or do not make it a habit or a practice of missing morning or evening services. You ought to be in the presence of God's people because we are all running this race with endurance and we help encourage one another to look unto Jesus. You need to hear these reminders. You need to hear the Word of God.
And you need to run. I know what it's like at times to say, you know, it's only been running. I want to coast for a while. I want to chill.
I mean, isn't that what everybody in Canada and America want? We want to chill. No, this isn't the time for chilling. This is the time for running.
The time to run with endurance. The time to look unto Jesus. The time to press on. You will have chill enough in the eternal state when God wipes away every tear from our eyes, when there's no more sorrow, no more pain, no more hunger, no more thirst, and when these eyes will gaze upon the Son of God in all of his glory.
Until that time, run. I can't run for you. I can yell at you and tell you to run, but I can't run for you. If I see you fall, I can try and pick you up and maybe for a moment put you over my shoulders.
I probably could have done it for a few more moments a few years ago, It's getting a little rickety now, I might drop you. But the point is, your parents can't run for you, your spouses can't run for you. You need to run. Why have we accepted this sort of, so lazy Christianity?
I'll go to church if I want, I'll do this if I... You don't get to want. You have signed up for the army of the living God. You have given your rights over to the Master, and He commands, He dictates, yea, He tells you what to do.
You don't have the prerogative to say, I don't feel like running anymore. Get up and run. Do it with endurance, listen to the witnesses, and look unto Jesus. What better thing to look upon anyway?
I love that description in the Song of Solomon in chapter 5 when the bride describes the bridegroom. He's altogether lovely. He's chief among ten thousand. It's a beautiful explanation of the glory of the God of Israel.
The bridegroom describes, or the bride rather, describes it in such a way. I love the response of the daughters of Jerusalem. I've often wondered if we as God's people actually viewed Christ in this way, if the daughters of Jerusalem today would ask us the same question. They say, where is your beloved that we might find him too?
Because she has described Him in His glowing terms. She has described Him in His beauty and His majesty. Somebody told you, I have met the One who is chief among ten thousand, the One who is altogether lovely. You might be provoked like those daughters of Jerusalem to say, tell us where He is that we might find Him too.
There's no more excellent thing than to gaze with faith upon this Lord who is described for us in Hebrews 12, 2. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this beautiful description of our beloved Savior. And we do confess that He is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. Where else ought our eye of faith go than to Him?
God, help us to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Help us to consider this Jesus, this author and finisher of our faith, this one who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. God, help us to remember that he now sits enthroned at the right hand of God Most High. Help us to remember that he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
He will come to take his bride into that eternal Sabbath. He will come to take his bride into that new heavens and new earth. And our Father, may these things encourage us as we run this race. And we praise you through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.