For the past few months, I’ve been posting about the book of Hebrews. If you’ve been reading, you will know the major themes of the book of Hebrews, but if you haven’t, I will go over some of the ideas quickly. The author has been comparing Jesus Christ and his ministry with the ways that God spoke to his people in the old Testament. God used to speak through prophets, and Jesus Christ is now the way God speaks to us. God used to use Angels as messengers, now God’s message is the cross of Jesus Christ. God used to speak to people through His laws and rules, which are known as the laws of Moses. He warned the readers not to drift away from God’s instruction and the direction that God has given us. We think of people who drift away from God to be people who are lawless and disobedient, which is true in one sense. You can drift away from God’s goodness by disregarding any of God’s law and living as if God didn’t exist at all. But you can also drift away from God’s grace by following legalism. Actually if you stay focused on the Law of Moses, and the articles found in the Temple, and the sacrificial system of atonement in the Old Testament, you will miss the completion of the law, which is found only in Christ. All of the articles in the temple which were used to worship God, are a shadow or copy of a greater thing to come found in Jesus Christ. The law itself is a shadow and copy of a greater thing which is freedom found in Jesus Christ. The author changed direction in Chapter 11 and talked about faith. Faith is a confidence in something unseen and assurance of what you’re hoping for. Faith leads to a behavior change, or action which is often contrary to the things that are seen. The conclusion of chapter 11 was that there were so many people throughout history and they acted by faith, and they accomplished great things and won victories for God’s kingdom. Some faced failure or loss from a worldly perspective, but all of them advanced God’s kingdom and gave God glory. And none of them fully received what was promised. Why? Because what was promised to them includes us! We are part of God’s promises to his chosen people Israel. We are part of the promises given to the disciples and the first churches, and together with them we are all part of the Glorious Bride of Christ and completion of the plans of God. Not just us today, but the next generation. Your kids and your grandkids all have a significant part to play in the promises of God. That’s where we ended last post, but the author is going somewhere with this. We know that because he starts chapter 12 with a word, Therefore. Because he started with Therefore, I had to give a recap to let everyone start on the same page with the same context.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

In Chapter 11, The author mentioned many Old Testament patriarchs, judges, kings, priests, and prophets. All to discuss how faith played a large role in their lives and their actions. And all of this to remind the reader that we are not alone! We are in good company, we are surrounded by witnesses. It takes faith to see that. It takes faith to believe that Moses and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob still exist. It takes faith to have confidence in something unseen, but it’s true. We are not alone in our lives, and our actions and lives are not hidden from God. We have so many examples of people who have witnessed God’s Glory and His provision. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Because of that, we should throw off everything that hinders our progress. Casting off one thing and putting on another. The bible talks about taking off certain things and putting on Christ. Kind of like taking off a dirty garment and putting on a clean one. It’s a very good analogy. In Hebrews the author writes that we are racing, and having the wrong garments or the wrong baggage will hinder our progress.

If you bring an incorrect or outdated map to a race, you may even end up going the wrong direction. In our lives, we tend to hang on to a lot of junk and baggage. You see a physical representation of this whenever you have to move. I know this because I just moved. I do a pretty good job at packing the things I use frequently. I think I am ready to move everything, but then when the actual moving day happens, it seems like there are just random drawers that get emptied into boxes that get filled with miscellaneous junk. On my most recent move, I just had box after box after bag of stuff, and I didn’t know what to do with it all. At one point you just tell yourself, it all has to go, and I will figure it out later. I found out that I tend to accumulate things. Often those things were prized or valuable at the time, but when you move, you get to see everything, even that which no longer serves its purpose. Hanging on to a box or drawer of keepsakes usually has little to no negative consequence, but when we hang onto our sins, it can be very dangerous. The problem is, we are actually good at hanging onto our sins. Because of our sinful nature we repackage sin to make it look nicer. People say: “Oh, I stretched the truth a bit”. – No that was a lie. We say, “You know, I got a little frustrated with the situation” – No you had Anger, and directed it towards somebody. We say, “oh, I was a bit short.” In reality, you were impatient. We claim, “I couldn’t make it” – the reality is yes you could have.  We say, “I took it easy.” actually, No you were lazy. We have so many ways to soften the impact of admitting that we have sin issues. Sin is a burden! It’s not a simple pleasure or a creature comfort. By the nature and the very definition of sin, it replaces God. And we let it. We even bring it with us on race day, during the times where we need to be on our A-game.

Earlier in the book of Hebrews the author spoke about drifting away. But that’s what our sin baggage causes us to do. Our sin can cause our sense of direction to be off. If we aren’t comparing our lives to God’s word, we can think things are going ok, but we might actually be heading nowhere, or worse, regressing in our Christian journey. Our goal should be to become ever closer to God. We should endeavor to learn more and more about His will for our lives, and live as close to that as possible. Doing that means giving up the desire for control. It means saying, “not my will, but Your’s be done” like Jesus did in Gethsemane. More on Gethsemane later. Growing closer to God means disliking the things that God condemns, and actually dying to sin. When we die to sin, we die to the concept of self. The Bible tells us our hearts are deceitful, and things that our bodies and our flesh desire can potentially end up being idols in our hearts. The author of Hebrews is recommending something different. Obedience. Discipleship. When we live a life of Discipleship, we cast off those idols, renounce our selfishness, repent of our sins, and use God’s Word as our source for direction. This is all stuff that is between us and God. But casting off sin has drastic and dramatic effects in our relationships with each other too. He gets to that in the second half of chapter 12, which is the next post. But when we die to the idea of Self, only then can we become free to love our neighbors like we love ourselves, and treat others the way you’d want them to treat you. Only when we can die to ourselves do we begin to understand what someone else might be going through. And when people sin against us, no longer are we so focused on how offended we are. Instead we remember how offensive we’ve been to God. No matter what people do to us, we understand how much worse we’ve thought and said and done to God, and how much more he’s forgiven us. It makes forgiving our neighbors that much easier. The Bible tells us to bear with each other, and take a proactive role in making peace with those who you are not at peace with. It means living as a representative of God himself. All of these fruits of the Holy Spirit are gifts from God that we can see in this world, evidence that he is working inside us. These things don’t just happen though. We must work for them (which means we aren’t saved by our fruits), but we must have behavior that is consistent with faith (which does save us and is a gift from God). We must have actions that are consistent with what we hope for, but don’t fully see yet. The author says we should Run. Lots of Christians talk about their Christian walk, but that’s not the analogy that the Author uses here. Running is not easy. Running is difficult, and the author says we should run with perseverance. So our Christian lives need to be like a distance race, not a sprint. Now before you decide to begin running, you need to have the end in mind. What is the goal for this running. Some people want to get healthy, some people want to run so they can compete better in a different sport that requires endurance. Some people want to win a race or complete a new distance or beat their prior time. These are all good reasons to run, but there will be times where you ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing. There are times you lack the motivation to run, and the only way to get out there is you need to remind yourself what is the GOAL. In the Christian life, there will be times when you question what you’re doing. There are times when you don’t want to be holy or different than everyone else in the world. The path of least resistance is to go with the flow, but sometimes the flow is going away from God. In this life, there will always be an easy way out, ready to tempt you to slack off or give up. However, just like a runner who thinks about their goal, and wakes up an hour early to get 5 miles in, You need to remember your goal, remember the cloud of witnesses urging you on towards God. God is our Goal. Being together with him, and enjoying his presence for Eternity is the reward for running this race. He is our direction, He is our destination, and He is our reward. People like to say “keep your eyes on the prize,” and the Author of Hebrews says the same type of thing.

2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

If you are tempted to grow weary or lose heart, like verse 3 says, you should Consider Jesus. Jesus is our destination, but he is also our model on how to live a faithful life. He perfected faith. We should fix our eyes on Jesus Christ. How did he run his race? We recalled earlier how he put to death the idea of self when he prayed in Gethsamene. When we read of him being tempted in the desert, we learn He could have had kingdoms, wealth, riches, anything this world had to offer. All of that and more was offered when Satan tempted him in the wilderness. But he kept his mind on the reward, and lived in a way that was assured of the things he was hoping for and confident in what he couldn’t see. He freely gave his life in order to endure the cross, all of the shame and pain. But the reward that was set before him was what? Joy. Jesus Christ endured the cross for the Joy that was set before him. He knew that he could bring sons and daughters to glory and defeat sin and death once and for all on the cross. He knew that the entire Old Testament system of sin and payment, crime and punishment, was just a shadow and copy of the true thing. That true thing was completed in His action. He endured the cross because there was a Joy that was set before him. For whosoever believes shall not die but have eternal life. If you hear the voice of the shepherd, and believe, you will spend an eternity in God’s presence, and experience paradise in the presence of the Creator, in the presence of God who is Love. A lot of different Christians have lots of different theories on what Heaven will be like. I am not presenting my own theory today, only to say that it will be better than anybody else could imagine. Eternal life in God’s presence has to be unfathomable to our limited minds who haven’t fully seen God face to face. If Jesus’s death bought eternal life for just one person, it is still a Joy unimaginable and incomprehensible to me. But we know that Jesus’s works has brought multitudes to a glorious eternal life. What Jesus did on the cross for us gave him Joy because he knew it also pleased God. Read Isaiah 53:

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Wow. Isaiah 53 is the chapter that says He was pierced for our transgressions, He was punished for our sins. By his wounds we are healed. We have been made righteous. But verse 10 says it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. When Jesus said “if it was possible to take the cup away, but not my will but yours be done,” he knew which one was God’s will. Jesus knew God’s will was to crush His Righteous servant and cause him to suffer. Verse 10 says Jesus entire life was made to be an offering for sin. He was made to suffer, and that was God’s will. God seems cruel in Isaiah 53:10. in King James version it’s worded, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him;” It is an immense cruelness, but our sin is an immense wrong, and needed a just retribution. If it were only Jesus and God to be considered, the whole arrangement would be sadistic and evil. But that’s not the whole story. The punishment afflicted on Jesus is immense, but that also means that God’s grace toward us is immense too. The suffering had a purpose, and both God and Jesus Christ understood it. Isaiah 53:11 says after Christ suffers he will see the light of life and be satisfied. Satisfied in what? The Knowledge of Jesus Christ, the righteous servant, ends up justifying Many, and carrying or bearing their iniquities. We can see the suffering of Christ and be satisfied knowing that it had a purpose. So the author of Hebrews reminds us in chapter 12 verse 3, to consider Jesus Christ while we are running with perseverance, so that we don’t grow weary and lose heart. There’s an implication that we will grow weary and lose heart, we are prone to grow weary, we are prone to feel defeated, but the cure for that is to consider Him, who endured such opposition from sinners, consider Christ, when you are feeling discouraged. Let’s read on

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

The author wants to encourage the readers. When you feel discouraged, consider Jesus. Look at what he went through. We haven’t shed blood in our fight against sin. Resistance to sin could be much worse than whatever we experience here. And when you’re discouraged, the writer of Hebrews references Proverbs 3. What does proverbs 3 say? My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline. Don’t lose heart when you are being rebuked. So when the Holy Spirit convicts your heart, and you feel like you’ve failed, don’t just ignore that feeling. Don’t shrug off God’s instruction. Take the struggle you are going through and use it to get closer to God! Use your hardship as evidence, not that God is unkind or unfair, but evidence that God loves you and thinks of you like a son or a daughter.

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.

Who out there hasn’t experienced hardship? We all go through things from time to time. Sometimes things are difficult in life, and other times our lives are easier, but even when we aren’t going through something difficult, we know someone else who is. There is always someone we know directly or people we hear about indirectly who suffer. As Christians, we are called to share in each others’ burdens. We aren’t called to reduce our misery as much as possible and coast alone. We are called to be in a community. We are called to live together. If there is a person who doesn’t feel disciplined by God ever, or is not sympathetically feeling any of their neighbors’ hardships, then that person is not learning anything. If you didn’t care about right and wrong, if you are cold hearted towards other people’s suffering, if injustice doesn’t bother you, if disobedience towards God’s laws is morally neutral, maybe God doesn’t look at you as if you’re his son or daughter. You surely don’t seem to be looking to God as if He’s a father. But those of us who feel hardship, those of us who are rebuked, it means we are part of the family, and our father cares about how we turn out. He cares more about how we turn out than we do sometimes, because we still fall for the lies of our sinful nature, and He allows us to experience unpleasantness and suffering. We are legitimate sons and daughters.

9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Continuing the analogy, the author describes how our earthly parents train and teach their children. At the time, it is unpleasant for both the parent and child. The child doesn’t get his or her way, and the parent worries their decision is too harsh, they are squelching their child’s creative spirit, or the child will resent them for years to come. With the benefit of hindsight, we can respect or at least understand the rationale of our mother and father’s parenting decisions. Our earthly parents are not perfect, but they did what they believed to be best. God’s discipline comes from omniscience and perfect knowledge of what really is best, and what good result will come from each moment of suffering. God disciplines us so we can share in his Holiness, so that we can reach the destination of our life’s race. Obviously hardship isn’t pleasant at the time, but the result is sharing in God’s righteousness and holiness. The result is a peace, which means instead of being enemies toward God, we are friends. Instead of being at war, we are being adopted. This is the result of hardship, for those who are trained by it. Why not take our hardships and suffering and use it to get closer to God. Why not be trained by God’s discipline? Our lives will go the way they will go, and we will face hardship, so why not listen to the author of Hebrews and the reasoning of God, and grow and make the best of our suffering?

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Here’s the conclusion! Early on in the letter, the author issued a warning not to drift away. We’ve talked about so much theology throughout Hebrews. Who were prophets? Who was Moses? What did he represent? What was the Old Covenant? Why are priests necessary? Who is Jesus Christ? Why does his ministry matter. What is Faith? What is the result of faith? Now, for everyone who is feeling discouraged, for anyone whose arms are too feeble to lift up to worship God, anyone who’s knees feel too weak to kneel and pray. The message is for you. Yes there is hardship, yes there is suffering, but Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ! He’s the Author and Perfecter of our faith! Make level paths for your feet. We aren’t on an easy stroll around the block; this is NOT a walk in the park. This is a race; the terrain can get treacherous, there will be hard work and sweat. But the reward is so much greater than the temporary hardship. God is working for your good in all things. In this race, don’t stop paying attention. Verse 13. Make sure your legs and feet are on solid ground, make sure your thoughts and hearts are in check. How do we do this? The book of Hebrews is full of footnotes, which are Old Testament quotes. This is deliberate. It makes reasonable sense because the author is writing to Hebrews who are familiar with and understand many of the references. But he is not using them simply because they are well known to the audience, but because they are Scripture. The Author uses scripture because scripture is the only thing worth using. The author doesn’t encourage people with just a motivational speech or pep talk. He uses the Word of God. Scripture is a roadmap which will tell you which direction is true north, where you want to go, how to best get there. The only reliable way to draw near to God is by using the word of God as a guide.