Jesus Is The Answer

By

 John C. Orlando, Jr.

Covenant Presbyterian Church

Abilene, Texas

2 January 2005

Text:  Hebrews 12:1-3

Background

Hebrews was written most likely in the late 60’s A.D. To this day there is still much speculation as to who wrote the letter. The letter was addressed primarily to Jewish converts who were who were being tempted to revert to Judaism or to Judaize the gospel.  Hebrews could be called "the book of better things" since the two Greek words for "better" and "superior" occur 15 times in the letter. The book of Hebrews, if nothing else, emphatically declares the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ as revealer and as mediator of God's grace.

Introduction

            When God saves us by His sovereign grace, and we begin our Christian pilgrimage, we want to know how we can please the Lord.  We want to know how it is that we can grow spiritually, and we want to know how it is that we can overcome the personal sin in our lives that we are quite aware of and plagues us like a thorn.  Such questions as, “How do I overcome the fears that taunt me?”  “How do I overcome the evil thoughts that bombard my mind?”  “How do I love Jesus more?” and “How can I be a better Christian?” are real concerns for us. 

I believe our passage this evening helps us answer these questions I have just posed.  But before going to our text this evening, we need to understand some of the key points the author of Hebrews has established prior to this point in the letter:

I. We Have A Great Savior

The writer of Hebrews began his letter in Chapter 1 by displaying the superiority of Jesus over the Angels and the prophets by giving us one of the most profound passages on the nature of Christ to be found anywhere in the Bible.  Jesus is said to be the heir of all things, and the One through whom the universe made. He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, and He upholds all things by the word of His power. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  

From there we are told not to neglect so great a salvation, and we are told of how Jesus took upon Himself human flesh, becoming like us in all things that He might taste death for us and bring many sons to glory. 

We are told that we are now partakers of the heavenly calling.  As such we are to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our calling, Christ Jesus, and not to harden our hearts as Israel did in the days of rebellion in the wilderness. Instead, we are enter into the rest that is promised to all those who believe.

We are told that in Christ, we have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weakness because He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, and it is because of Him alone that we can enter into that rest, and approach the throne of grace boldly. 

The author then tells us of the insufficient nature of the Old Covenant and its priesthood and demonstrates the necessity for a New Covenant, a better covenant established on better promises with Christ as the High Priest of the good things to come, who entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy place in Heaven once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

We discover that while Christ has now made the first covenant obsolete, there were still those who wanted to go back to the weak and beggarly things of the Old Covenant, and the author warns them of the insufficient nature of that covenant and those sacrifices, and that by turning to those things, and away from Christ for their right standing before God, there no longer remains a sacrifice sins. 

And with that, we are launched into the chapter 11, the great chapter on faith, where we read of those saints of God who in ages past rested their hope in God alone, and were heirs of the righteousness which is by faith.

After going through all of these things now, the author Hebrews is going to bring it all home to us in these first few verses in Heb 12:1-3 (read). 

In our text this evening, the author likens the Christian life to a race.  The imagery is that of an athletic competition such as the Olympics, which the readers of this letter would have been quite familiar.  In this great event, we are told who it is that is cheering us on, what it is that is hindering us in our race, and who it is that will give us the victory in the race. 

Let us first look at those who are cheering us on: 

II. So Great A Cloud of Witnesses  (v. 1)

A.  The immediate context would be all those that the author just mentioned in chapter 11 in what has been called the Hall of Faith.  As we look at the examples there, it is notable that we call chapter 11 the Hall of Faith, and not the Hall of Works, or the Hall of Faith Plus Works, or the Hall of Personal Merit.  It is the Hall of Faith.  And all of the ones cited there have one thing in common:  They rested fully and completely in God alone for their source of strength and right standing. No matter what came against them, whether it was persecution, torture, scourgings, chains and imprisonment, they considered the riches of Christ greater than the treasures of the world, and they looked forward to the promise that we now have in Christ.

We can look to these ones as trophies of God’s grace as it were.  The stadium is full, and the great cloud of witnesses is testifying loudly “Trust in Christ alone!”  They are singing triumphantly, “Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress; midst the flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.”

With that testimony in mind, we are told to:

III.  “…lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us”

            A.  “…every encumbrance and sin…” –

An encumbrance is something that holds back movement, burdens, hinders, and obstructs.  It is to load or weigh down as with debts. 

Though the author does not mention specifically what the encumbrance and sin was, we know that the people he was writing to were flirting with turning back to the Old Covenant, and the reason they seemed to be doing this was because of the persecution that they were enduring for the cause of Christ and His cross. 

To go back to the Old Covenant and its Law and its priests, and its sacrifices would be to go to something that would both encumber their movement to Christ, and in point of fact it would be to willfully sin, as the writer of Hebrews says in Chapter 10:26, because they had already received a clear understanding of the truth of the Gospel, but now were rejecting that in turning back to the Law.  The sin that they would be guilty of would be that of trampling the Son of God underfoot, and counting the Blood of the Covenant a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of grace. (ref Heb 10:29)

Thus, they are told to lay aside every encumbrance, that is, lay aside anything that would block their movement to Christ and His Gospel.  It is in Christ’s Gospel where the load of the weight of our debt has been fully paid.  Thus, the author of Hebrews puts before his readers a clear choice:  either one is going to look to Moses, or one is going to look to Christ for their right standing before God. A return to the Moses would be, as the Apostle Peter stated at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, to “test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which [no one] could bear.” Fleeing to Christ on the other hand is where we find our sole source of justification before a holy God.  Fleeing to Christ is where we find our sanctification, both positional and experiential.  Fleeing to Christ, and to Christ alone, is where we find our only comfort, our only joy, our only peace, our only strength, and our only hope.

Any kind of works mentality, where we are constantly directed to our performance for our right standing with God, whether it is with regard to justification, or even our sanctification, is to move from the Gospel and is to create nothing but fear, guilt, shame, and condemnation in the hearts of God’s people.  It stands in direct contrast to the words of the Lord who said, “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gently and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

We are told to lay aside these encumbrances and sin because they are said to :

            B.  “…easily entangle us…”  It is so easy to be moved away from the simplicity of the Gospel.  It is so easy to move away from the grace of God that is found in Christ and from the rest that He commands us to walk in, because by nature we are given to a works mentality.  While we’re busy asking the questions of how it is we can please God, and then developing the list of do’s and don’ts that we think will facilitate that noble end, God is busy telling us that in the Gospel Jesus has done it all, and we cannot possibly please God any more than what we do in Christ.  But man’s mentality says “do.”  Man’s religion says “do.”  But Christ says “done!”

And the Old Covenant, which when rightly understood was the means by which God was showing us our desperate need for a Savior, nevertheless in the hands of sinful man is used as a means of gaining favor with God.   It is the mentality of works that is obstructing the way to Christ and it must be laid aside as we press toward to the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ, because when we move away from the Gospel, we get tangled and ensnared, and it is not long before we begin to feel the weight of our sin, and the guilt that accompanies it, and lose the joy of our salvation. 

The author then tell us that we must: 

IV.  “…run with endurance the race that is set before us,”  The Christian life is not a sprint, but a pilgrimage that is both challenging on the one hand, and exhilarating on the other.

It is exhilarating in that we rejoice in such a glorious Gospel, that the infinite God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, has made a perfect and complete atonement for the sins of His people, was raised from the grave, and ascended into Heaven where He ever lives to make intercession for us. 

We are exhilarated by the hope that we have in Christ, that though we may suffer now, it is nothing to be compared to the glory that will be revealed.  We are exhilarated by the new life that we have in Christ, that we have been made new creatures, and behold, old things have passed away!  We are exhilarated in that we know that our sanctification, as a matter of position, is completed, but then we are face with the challenge that we are still on the Potter’s Wheel, being  conformed more and more into the image of Christ. 

We are challenged in that we understand that anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, will, not might, endure persecution.  We are challenged in that we are constantly being buffeted by our enemies; the world, the flesh, and the devil, who roams around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  We are challenged by the temptations of the world and the subtle philosophies that distract us from Christ.  We are challenged by the indwelling sin that still resides within us, and when we evaluate ourselves in the light of a Holy God, we see just far short of the glory of God we still fall, and if we take our eyes off of the Gospel and off of Christ, we are driven to the point of despair!   

            We understand that we are called to grow in godliness, and we hear the admonition that we are to be holy as He is holy.  How is this done though?  Do we return back to the Law and set our gaze there? 

While the Law is of benefit in that it reveals to us the eternal moral character of an absolutely holy God, and it shows us those things that please and displease God, the Old Covenant given on Mt. Sinai is not to be the place where the believer rests.  It is not to the Tables of Stone that we look in order to produce a more godly life, because the Tables of Stone, while good and holy, in and of themselves can only produce death.  The moral law of God should never be used as a means to gain righteousness; the only thing that it can do is drive us to Christ. 

            Maybe you’re saying that you aren’t looking at the Law as the means for your right standing before God, yet you still feel overwhelmed by the weight of guilt.  Well, beloved, God has written His law on our hearts, and the problem many of us have is that our focus turns solely inward, and we try to measure up to that law that is in fact written in our hearts. 

Instead of looking to the Tables of Stone, or looking within ourselves for life, we must be continually, as the author of Hebrews declares:

V.  “Fixing our eyes on Jesus” – The means of laying aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and the way that we run the race that is set before us with endurance is not to look within us, or to look to the Law, or even to look to the great cloud of witnesses (the great cloud of witnesses do not point us to themselves, but to Christ!).  Instead of these things, we must fix our eyes on Jesus.  It is here, to Jesus that we rest our gaze, because, as the author of Hebrews has painstakingly made clear that:

In Jesus we have:

The Superiority of God's New Revelation (1:1-4) 

The Superiority of Christ to Leaders of the Old Covenant (1:5-7:28)

We look to Jesus because:

Christ Is Superior to the Angels (1:5-2:18) Christ Is Superior to Moses (3:1-4:13)

Christ Is Superior to the Aaronic Priests (4:14-7:28) Christ has a Superior Priesthood (ch. 7)

We fix our eyes on Jesus because of:

The Certainty of God's promise in Him and The Superior Sacrificial Work of Our High Priest

We look to Jesus because in Him we have:

A Better Covenant (ch. 8) A Better Sanctuary (9:1-12} A Better Sacrifice (9:13-10:18)

What does it mean though to fix our eyes on Jesus? 

A. The Gospel - First, we notice that we are told to fix our eyes on Jesus…who is the

Author and Perfecter of our faith, who died on the cross, and who ascended into Heaven.  Fixing our eyes on Jesus means to preach the Gospel to ourselves everyday, because it is in the Gospel where we understand that a full, sufficient sacrifice was made for our sins.  It is in the Gospel where we understand that every aspect of our salvation has been accomplished by Christ, and that everything we have, even our faith, was given to us a free gift; a gift which Christ Himself is not only the author of, but will Himself perfect! 

It is in the Gospel where we see the incredible mercy and grace of our Savior that has been bestowed on wholly unworthy sinners.  It is in the Gospel where we understand that He who knew no sin was made sin for us, and on the cross Christ bore the full wrath and fury of God that due to us. The curse of God and the condemnation that was due to us was placed on Christ, and now in Christ there is no condemnation!  It is in the Gospel where we understand that our right standing before a holy God has been secured forever, as we have had the perfect righteousness and merits of Christ imputed to us. 

And one of the benefits of the Gospel is that we understand that our life is hidden in Christ, and we are not left to ourselves.  Rather, our Great High Priest has ascended into heaven and is at the Right Hand of Father, ever living to make intercession for His people!  You see beloved, our works will always fail, no matter how good with think they are.  But the perfect works of Christ never fail, and His perfect work has been imputed to us, and as such God sees us as clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.  And where we may feel weak, and where we may be overwhelmed, and where we may be unfaithful and feeble in our prayers, we have a mighty High Priest who is never weak, never overwhelmed, and never unfaithful, but perfectly intercedes on our behalf, and His intercession is always heard, and it never ever fails!  

To fix our eyes on Jesus has to do with being so enamored with the Gospel that we never

allow anything to distract us from the Good News that is contained in it.

B.  The Means - Well, now we may be asking how it is that we can preach the Gospel to

ourselves everyday.  God, in His grace, has established various means by which we can do this, and it is through these “means” that we wholeheartedly feed on Christ.  These means are His Word, the sacraments, and the fellowship of believers, to name just a few.  Refer to Table Talk, May 2002, p. 42.  It is here, in Christ’s body where we have, as the Westminster Confession of Faith says, the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ. 

            Well, with these things in mind, let us examine a bit more closely what the author of Hebrews says with regard to why it is that we fix our eyes on Jesus.  Jesus, we are told, is:

C.  “…the Author and Perfecter of our faith – Here we see the critical truth that even our faith is something that is bestowed upon us by the gracious hand of our sovereign God.  This is important, because it prevents us from turning our faith into the cause of our salvation, and it shows us that this is a work that is wholly of God. 

Saving faith is not something that the natural man works up, but it is in fact a gift that is purchased for him and bestowed upon him by Christ.  Hence, Christ, and not our faith, is the sole sufficient cause of our salvation, and our faith has its source outside of us in that it is a gift given to us by God.  As such, instead of being the cause of our salvation, our faith is now merely the instrument through which we are able to take hold of Christ. 

And, since this work is wholly of God; since Christ is the author of our faith, we can now have absolute assurance, because He who began a good work in us will complete to the end.  He, not us, is the author of our faith, and He, not us, is the perfecter, or the finisher of our faith.  And  notice the connection here with the cross…

            D.  “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” – Here we see the eternal purpose of God.  Jesus came to do the will of the Father, and His mission was, as He tell us in John 6:37, to bring all that the Father had given Him to Himself.  The joy set before Him was the realization of the perfect accomplishment of all that the Father had sent Him to do.  He would see the travail of His soul and be satisfied, as He would bring many sons to glory. (Heb 2:10-13).  And He looked forward, as we will see in a moment to sitting at the right hand of the Father. 

But He had to first endure the cross for our redemption, and this He did, we are told:

E.  “despising the shame,” – The word “despising” here means to think against, or to regard as unworthy of ones notice or consideration.  The Romans used the cross not only as an instrument of torture and execution, but also as a shameful display reserved for the worst criminals.  And we know that to the Jews, it was a sign of being accursed.  There Jesus, the One who knew no sin, the One who spoke and infinite galaxies leapt into existence, the one who upholds all things by the word of His power, was hoisted up between heaven and earth, beaten, afflicted, naked, shamed and humiliated, but He considered the offense and shame of the cross as unworthy of notice. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy He knew would be His afterwards, when, a we noted, that He would see the travail the soul and be satisfied, and as, the author tells us, He would

F.  “and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God,” We know from elsewhere in Scripture that this phrase has to do with Jesus’ active intercession on the behalf of His people.  It is there where Jesus is now, as He ever lives to make intercession for His people, which, again, is an awesome testimony to the assurance we have. 

VI.  Conclusion

“3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself,

so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” 

The ultimate reason we grow weary is because we fix our eyes on other things instead of Christ alone.  The reason we lose heart is because we move from the one who has changed our heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. 

As we noted in this morning’s sermon, even the strongest among us is, in and of himself, immensely weak.  In the race that has been marked out for us and our struggle against sin we must not look to the weak and beggarly elements, but to Christ.  Jesus is the answer beloved.  How do we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ?  Jesus is the answer.  How do we overcome our fears?  Jesus is the answer.  How do we endure suffering, trials, and persecution?  Jesus is the answer.  How do we fight the devil and his minions that attack us and our minds on a daily basis?  Jesus is the answer. 

Beloved, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Amen.

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