Looking to Jesus
Hebrews 12:1-4,
I'd like to just share three key thoughts around this passage, which for every child of God seeking to live a life that is honoring and glorifying to God, that is looking forward to Christ, being with God, spotless, without sin, in heaven for eternity, and seeking to live this life by faith, like all the examples of the regular saints that have gone before us, regular men and women in chapter 11 that did extraordinary works of faith by the power of God. Using them in their time, in their place, in their role, we desire to be like them and like our Savior. And so the three points I'd like to bring up is: Christ is our joy as believers; and then Christ is our example on how to endure and to live and run this race and live this life; and Christ is our mediator, He's our help, He's who we run to for strength, for increase in faith, for help.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
I'd like to just share three key thoughts around this passage, which for every child of God seeking to live a life that is honoring and glorifying to God, that is looking forward to Christ, being with God, spotless, without sin, in heaven for eternity, and seeking to live this life by faith, like all the examples of the regular saints that have gone before us, regular men and women in chapter 11 that did extraordinary works of faith by the power of God. Using them in their time, in their place, in their role, we desire to be like them and like our Savior. And so the three points I'd like to bring up is: Christ is our joy as believers; and then Christ is our example on how to endure and to live and run this race and live this life; and Christ is our mediator, He's our help, He's who we run to for strength, for increase in faith, for help.
Christ is our Joy
So Christ is our joy, you see it there and really the motivation. You see Christ Himself, “Who for the joy that was set before Him.” Turn with me to Philippians 3. The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to put for us what should be every Christian's ultimate motivation. And this ultimate motivation, yes, we do not want to spend an eternity in hell. If I look back on my own salvation, that was a significant motivation, and it should be. The other motivation is we don't like to suffer for anything, let alone suffer for our mistakes in this life. And we often receive due and just punishment for that. But the key motivation, starting in verse 8, is for the love of Christ and the desire to be with Christ. He is our joy. “Indeed,” he says in Philippians chapter 3,
You see it there and the passage goes on about pressing on toward the goal of the prize, just like the running analogy in Hebrews chapter 12. And so Christ is the Christian's highest, highest joy and the prize for which we strive for, which we endure this race or the endurance required for this life. The motivation is to see Christ, be with Christ, that we would know Him as the apostle Paul states in Philippians, “knowing Christ.”
“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
You see it there and the passage goes on about pressing on toward the goal of the prize, just like the running analogy in Hebrews chapter 12. And so Christ is the Christian's highest, highest joy and the prize for which we strive for, which we endure this race or the endurance required for this life. The motivation is to see Christ, be with Christ, that we would know Him as the apostle Paul states in Philippians, “knowing Christ.”
Christ is our Example
And then second, Christ is really our example on how to run this race. How do we run? How can we do it? We can't do it on our own strength, we know that, we try, we fail. We try again in our own strength, we fail again. That doesn't work. And so how did Christ Himself endure and live the life that He lived perfectly? See it in verse 2, He really is our example. In Hebrews chapter 12:2, the writer says, “Looking to Jesus, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus.” And you can interpret this both ways, I think. He is our motivation because He is there to know Him. We look forward to being with Him. He is our example, but He's also our help, He is also our way. You see it there in verse 3 of Hebrews chapter 3, “Consider Him.” The writers of the Hebrews is writing to us and say, “Think about how He ran. Consider Him who endured. Consider Him. Consider His life, the actual life that Christ lived.” We have it laid out in the gospels for us who endured. He is our example. I think of this passage in 1 Peter 2, often. 1 Peter 2:19, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures,” same word, “one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” Just like Christ. There is nothing that He endured was justified. Verse 20, “For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?” Same word. Our race is about endurance and enduring suffering. “But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.” And then he goes on to say, “For to this you have been called, (believers, this is our calling) because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in His footsteps.” Christ is our joy, our prize, our goal. Christ is our example. That's how we look to Him.
Christ is our Mediator
And then Christ our mediator. If you go back to Hebrews chapter 12, He's our joy, He's our example. And then we actually go to God through Christ to get strength and help and guidance and wisdom and patience and endurance and everything we need to run this race like Christ did. And that is primarily done by prayer, by a prayer of faith that says to the Lord, “Christ is my mediator.” You see it there in Hebrews 12:22-24. He's my savior, He died for me and He is the one I pray to God through the mediator at the right hand of the Father, verse 22 of Hebrews chapter 12,
There is no misunderstanding. We are not going to live this Christian life or endure perfectly like Christ. But we have a mediator and His blood is sprinkled for us. And that blood is better than the blood of the murder of Abel. This is a blood that was shed by Christ to cleanse us of our sins.
And so that's my encouragement as we strive. Whatever role we're in in this life, we're a student, we're a mom seeking to raise up kids, we're a dad, a husband, a wife, a father, a worker, a laborer; wherever God has put us, we should strive to run this race with endurance, knowing that Christ is our joy, He's our example on how to run, and He is our mediator. He is the one that stands between us and the Father and is able to ask everything on our behalf.
“But you have come to Mount Zion (as believers), and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, (we as a church), and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, (you, your name is written on the roll in heaven), and to God, the judge of all, and to the saints, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
There is no misunderstanding. We are not going to live this Christian life or endure perfectly like Christ. But we have a mediator and His blood is sprinkled for us. And that blood is better than the blood of the murder of Abel. This is a blood that was shed by Christ to cleanse us of our sins.
And so that's my encouragement as we strive. Whatever role we're in in this life, we're a student, we're a mom seeking to raise up kids, we're a dad, a husband, a wife, a father, a worker, a laborer; wherever God has put us, we should strive to run this race with endurance, knowing that Christ is our joy, He's our example on how to run, and He is our mediator. He is the one that stands between us and the Father and is able to ask everything on our behalf.
Posted in Pastor Devotional