The following message was delivered
on Sunday evening, February 5th, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist
Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now before we read the word of
God and ask the Lord's blessing upon our meditation, just a brief
word of explanation for those who are visiting with us for
the first time or perhaps relatively new amongst us. Ordinarily, the
center focal point, the greater bulk of our time in public worship
is given to the preaching of the Word of God. That ordinarily
means, in the framework of an hour, more or less, of exposition
and application. But we believe that when we come
to the supper of remembrance, in the language of Acts 20, it
is said that they gathered on the first day of the week in
order to break bread. And though there were unusual
circumstances that meant Paul preached an unusually lengthy
sermon, one man fell asleep, a young lad, and fell out the
window, and they thought him to be dead, or he may have been
dead, but the principle being that there is a gathering in
which the focal point is the coming to the table, and therefore
we restrict the ministry in its length to approximately a half
an hour, and its focus to something that will in a very special way
prepare us for coming to the table so that when we actually
do come to the table we are not excessively weary in mind that
we do not need then a lengthy meditation at the table to prepare
us to take the bread and the cup and to eat in faith and hopefully
with hearts warmed by the Word of God. And so, if you are visiting
among us, we want to assure you, you would generally get more
than a half an hour of exposition and application of the Word of
God. We would not want you to come and judge the ministry simply
based upon tonight, and go away and say, well, I heard that that's
a place where you get a good six-course meal in the Scriptures,
and all I got was an appetizer and my soup. and you would not
rightly judge of the ordinary fare served in this spiritual
restaurant. So hopefully that word of explanation
will put our gathering in a proper and accurate context. Will you
turn with me now to Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12, and I
shall read in your hearing the opening two verses, which to
many of us are very familiar words, Hebrews chapter 12 verses
1 and 2. Therefore let us also, seeing
we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay
aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus author and perfecter of faith, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and
hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Now let
us pray and ask God by the Holy Spirit to give us the fresh sight
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
the words of our Lord Jesus, who, speaking concerning the
person and ministry of the Spirit, said that he shall take of mine
and shall reveal it to you. And we pray that the Holy Spirit
this night will do that work which he delights to do in testifying
to Christ. Take, we pray, His own inscripturated
Word, and make it a living Word to each of our hearts. We ask
in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, for our brief communion
meditation tonight, I want to direct your attention to one
simple, fundamental, but all-important Word found in the two verses
read in your hearing, that is the word embodied in the phrase
in verse two at its beginning, looking unto Jesus. Now those words are the kind
of words that very naturally lend themselves to plaques that
are found in Christian bookstores and in various forms of calligraphy
or other forms of visual art are set on plaques because there
is a bit of a catchy ring to them looking unto Jesus. But so often the words are used
in a relatively sentimental way, in a way that has very little
intelligible content. And yet the way in which they
are said before us surely is just the opposite of that. Let
me say just a word about the general setting of these verses
from which that phrase is taken. Those of you familiar with the
Epistle to the Hebrews will know that in this epistle the writer
is calling his readers to persevering faith based upon the better things
of the New Covenant. Here were people tempted to go
back to the types and shadows of the old covenant because their
confession of attachment to Christ as the mediator of the new covenant,
and to all of the privileges of that better covenant with
its better priesthood, better sacrifices and all of its better
things was bringing upon them bitter and sometimes even life-threatening
opposition and persecution and so the writer to Hebrews is concerned
by drawing on the believers by holding out before them the better
things and as it were getting behind them and driving them
on with some of the most sober threatenings and warnings to
be found anywhere in the Word of God. So he is enticing them
to persevering faith by opening up the better things of the New
Covenant and he is seeking to drive them on in the way of the
better things of the New Covenant by sober warnings. And in the course of doing that,
he came to chapter 11, in which he set forth this marvelous display,
this honor roll of men and women who manifested such persevering
faith. and starting with the patriarchs
and moving right on to some of their own contemporaries who
were being martyred for the sake of Christ, he sets forth this
display, this honor roll of the men and women who manifested
this persevering faith and thereby attained the reward of the eternal
inheritance. In the light of all of this,
he now is going to give this very focused exhortation of verses
12, verses 1 and 2 of chapter 12. Therefore, let us also. And he begins with this encouragement
to enter and remain in the race. He says, seeing we are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us do something
because there is a great cloud of witnesses. And the witnesses
could either be regarded as those who've gone before and are now
in the stadium beholding us, or I rather believe that the
meaning is they are the ones who bear witness that persevering
faith does indeed bring a glorious reward. The idea that the saints
who've gone before us are actually beholding us in our race is something
that, to my knowledge, cannot be established exegetically from
the Word of God. I believe it would cause great
sadness to the spirits of just men made perfect if they saw
the way in which we often run the race. And I don't believe
God is going to make them our encouragement at the expense
of their joy in the presence of God. But they are witnesses
by their presence in the very immediate presence of God that
to run the race of persevering faith is not to be engaged in
a fool's endeavor. So there is the encouragement
to enter and remain in the race that comes from this cloud of
witnesses who tell us that to run the race in persevering faith
is indeed to attain unto a blessed reward. Then there comes in the
second place the call to make the necessary preparation to
run well in the race. Compassed with these witnesses,
we are to lay aside every weight, everything that would encumber
us, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Not referring
to what we call a besetting sin, but sin of any kind, sin of any
nature, sin in its totality. We must lay aside all encumbrances,
we must lay aside the very body of sin, like a cloak that would
encumber us. I had the privilege of watching
the Millrose Games on Friday night. I was invited by one of
our church members to see them in Madison Square Garden. It
was interesting to watch that before every race, no matter
what kind of warm-up clothes the athletes had, they stripped
down to the bare minimum of their racing gear that they might not
be encumbered in seeking to win the prize. So we move from the
encouragement to enter and remain in the race that comes from those
who've gone before and witnessed that to do so is not to be a
fool. Then there is the call to make
the necessary preparation to run well in the race, lay aside
all encumbrances and the body of sin. Then thirdly, there is
the summons to run the race with endurance determined to finish. Let us run with patience or endurance
the race that is set before us. And the language here is very
similar to the language of 1 Corinthians 9. We have been dealing with
the subject of Christian liberty and the necessity of having our
liberty regulated by the determination to keep our own souls in a healthy
state. By the determination not only
to enter the Christian race, to run for a while, but to complete
the race and to seize the prize. And some of the technical language
from those athletic games is found in this passage. And so
we are summoned to run this race with endurance, determined to
complete it. Then we come in the fourth place
to our phrase, the directive for the fixation of our eyes
throughout the entire race. Everything leads up to this. We have responded by grace to
enter the race. We have and continue to seek
to lay aside all encumbrances and the sin which besets us. Our hearts are set upon running
and completing the race and in all the best There is to be this
directive understood by us that touches the fixation of the eyes
of our soul throughout the entire race, looking unto Jesus. Now the word looking is a rare
word in the New Testament. This particular word is found
only twice. There is a standard word for
looking, but that's not the word that is used here. This word
literally means to take your eyes away from one thing and
to concentrate them upon another. It is a looking away off unto
Jesus. So that in the entirety of the
Christian race there is to be a fixation of the spiritual eyes
upon Jesus himself. And because, in the very nature
of being true to the text in 1 Corinthians 10, we have had
some very deep, long, searching, sobering looks at our own hearts. We have had some deep, long,
searching looks at the sins that lurk within our own hearts and
are constantly there to threaten us in our Christian race. And
in the midst of all of this, I believe this text is the most
appropriate meditation for our coming to the table tonight.
that in our determination to regulate all of our liberties
by the determination to complete the race and seize the prize,
we are to turn our eyes away from every other object, including
ourselves, the sins into which we might possibly fall, the many
who are strewn as wreckage along the race course, and we are to
fix our eyes upon Jesus himself. But now this looking off unto
Jesus is not some mystical, sentimental notion, but we are to look off
unto Jesus basically in a twofold light. Look at the text. Looking
away off unto Jesus, the author or captain and perfecter of faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising shame, and hath sat down on the right hand of the
throne of God. The twofold light in which we
are to gaze by faith upon our Lord Jesus, with a faith that
is constantly instructed and enlightened and shaped by the
scriptures so that it is not a Jesus of our own imagination,
our own fantasies, but it is the Jesus of biblical revelation. We are to look off unto him,
first of all, as the originator and completer of faith. Now I'm not going to weary you
with the possible meanings of the various words and the different
opinions of the commentators, but this much is clear. With
respect to our faith, whether we consider it as our faith,
the subjective exercise of trust in Christ, or our faith the body
of truth revealed concerning Christ for the term the faith
or faith is used in both ways in the New Testament one thing
is clear Jesus stands paramount at the beginning of it and the
end of it and he is everything significant in between so to
look off unto Jesus If it is as captain, originator, and perfecter
of our faith, then it is looking unto Jesus, who began the work
of saving grace in us, and who will certainly complete that
work. And whatever heaviness and leadenness
we may feel in our legs in the midst of the race, whatever burning
of lungs and oxygen starvation we may feel as we're coming into
our last laps, Jesus puts no one into this race of faith but
what he is both originator and perfecter of their faith. Yea,
I to the end shall in due, as sure as the earnest is given,
but not more secure the glorified spirits in heaven And if it is
referring more to the objective truth about Christ, of which
he is both author, captain, and perfecter, then it is saying,
fix the gaze of your soul upon Jesus as the one in whom all
the provisions of God in the gospel find their expression. This has been the great theme
of this epistle to the Hebrews. Do I need a priest to represent
me before God by sacrifice? He is the priest greater than
any Aaronic priest. He is a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. Do I need a sympathetic priest
who has been tempted in all points like as I have been tempted yet,
never stained with sin? Well, he is just such a priest.
Do I need a sacrifice that having once been offered never needs
to be repeated? He is the one who by one sacrifice
hath perfected forever those that are sanctified. So whatever
my need as a sinner is in Christ and in the truth concerning Christ,
there is a faith of which he is both the author and the perfecter. He is the beginning and the end. Hence the scripture says the
truth as it is in Jesus. And Paul could say, though he
ranged over the widest field of Christian doctrine in Colossians
chapter 1, whom we preach. with reference to the Lord Jesus. And so, the direction for the
fixation of our spiritual eyes throughout the entire race, it
is to be a fixation upon Jesus. It is to be a looking unto Jesus,
not as a lovely little spiritual catchword, but with spiritual
intelligence contemplating the fact that I'm in the race because
it was first of all his idea, not mine. Left to myself, I wouldn't
be in this race. I would still be with those drifting
down into perdition on my way to everlasting darkness and the
wrath of God. He is the one who laid hold of
me and brought me into the race. If the sense here is the captain,
he's the one who conscripted me. And he waits at the finish
line to reward me. Look away unto Jesus. He knew
all the difficulties I would face. He knew all the impediments. He knew the times I would stumble. He knows the times when I wonder,
will I make another step in that race? Looking off unto Jesus,
the author, the originator and completer of faith. But he is not only set before
us as the one upon whom we are to fix our eyes as originator
and completer of faith. but as the great pattern and
example of faith. Look at the latter part of verse
2. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising shame, and hath sat down on the right hand of the
throne of God. There is no clearer example of
the pattern of persevering faith than is to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. He lived the life of faith without
a tinge of unbelief. And notice the pattern and example
of his faith. It was one in which he fixed
the end in his eyes. who for the joy that was set
before him. And what was the joy set before
him? Well, according to this passage,
we could say it was the joy of the personal reward for his own
humiliation and suffering, namely being brought to the place of
messianic exaltation described in this verse as being sat down
on the right hand of the throne of God. And that certainly is
a biblical truth. It seems to be alluded to here.
It's the truth of Philippians 2. Because Christ was willing
to empty himself, taking the form of a servant, being found
in fashion as a man, humbled himself, became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross, wherefore? God hath highly
exalted him, and given him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. Or Acts chapter 2, where Peter
speaks of Christ's exaltation as Messianic Lord, being the
fruit of his willingness to be crucified at the hands of wicked
men. But I rather believe that the
illusion here, who for the joy that was set before him, is the
joy spoken of in Isaiah 53. He shall see of the reward of
his sufferings, and shall be satisfied. The joy spoken of
in Hebrews chapter 2, where it speaks of the captain of our
salvation, the same word in the original translated there, captain,
translated here, author, make the captain of our salvation
perfect through sufferings and in that setting we are called
his brethren. A wonderful allusion to Psalm
22 where Messiah says in the midst of the brethren I will
sing praises unto thee. So could it be that in our Lord
being the pattern and example of faith, He fixes the end in
His eye, and the end for Him, the joy set before Him, was presenting
all whom He puts into the race, and sustains throughout the race,
and brings to the end of the race, and upon whom He confers
the prize. the joy of presenting them totally
conformed to his likeness in the presence of angels and to
present them unto the Father. But whether that is the precise
nuance of the passage, the thing that is clear is that the pattern
and example of our Lord's faith is that future joy became the
motivation and the strength to endure present difficulty. Look
at the passage. Who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising shame? As a man of
faith, the cross lay before him. Shame. What a simplistic way
to describe August Bohr. And he didn't go through it stoically
by some kind of internal floating upon the great weight and strength
of his divine nature. His experience in Gethsemane
shows as the perfect God-man, the thought of his human soul
being the receptacle of the unleashed fury of the wrath of God caused
him such an agony. that it crest as it were were
great drops of sweat mingled with blood from his brow and
other parts of his body, till in some of the nuances of the
account in Mark it could well be that some of his very garments
had the appearance of being blood-soaked. as a result of that agony. Everything
in Him, there was an aversion. Oh, my Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. What enabled Him to endure that
cross, to embrace it, to march out of that garden and on to
the high priest's place of judgment and on before Pilate and Herod
and all that followed. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, thinking lightly of its shame. Now that's relatively speaking. In itself, the accounts of our
Lord's trauma and agony prior to and upon the cross was real. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? But relatively speaking, in terms
of the joy set before him, and holding to his course, knowing
that he would receive the full reward of his sufferings, he
ran with endurance the race that was set before him. And on this
communion evening as we come to the table, with many of us
having been duly and properly sobered in recent days regarding
this matter of the race, that though we are free men and women
in Jesus Christ, free from the curse of the law, free from the
galling pressure of the law with no internal delight in its standards
or motivation to obedience. And though we are free from all
of the trappings and the ceremonies of the Mosaic system and free
from men lording it over our consciences, we have seen that
that freedom is not unto a liberty that tempts God, leaves us vulnerable
to a dull conscience and to a shoddy life. but freedom to be the willing,
joyful, meticulously obedient, bond slaves of Jesus Christ,
where we will derive both motivation and strength to run with endurance
the race that is set before us. It will come as we look off and
away unto Jesus. Look at yourself and you'll see
we accumulated massive weakness. Look to others and you will see
that which often will disappoint you. Look out into the world
and you'll despair but looking unto Jesus what will you see? You will see Him who is originator
and completer of faith. You will see Him as the pattern
and example of faith who for the joy set before Him endured
the cross despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God, and it is he who says in the book of
the Revelation to him that overcometh, I will give to sit down with
me in my throne as I overcame and sat down in my Father's throne. Dear people, what better place
to look off from ourselves, to look off from one another, to
look off from all the dangers in a seductive and bewitching
world, to look off from the prince of darkness, who with all of
his power and machinations goes about, Peter says, as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour, and look off unto Jesus. not
in some mystical, sentimental way, but with the faith content. He is originator and perfecter
of faith. In the objective faith, Christ
is all and in all and everything I need to be a perfect Savior,
to take me all the way to glory. Look off unto Jesus. Look off
unto Jesus as the one who has put me into the race. who by
his grace has granted repentance and faith to me, and having begun
that work will complete it, and then look to him as the pattern
and example of faith in which we seize the prides with our
eyes, who for the joy set before us, the joy of knowing a few
more breaths to use the imagery of the race, a few more yards,
a few more meters, a few more breaths, even with burning lungs
and leaden legs, a few more strides, and will break the tape and seize
the prize. Then it will be unmixed, undiluted
joy forever and forever in His presence, looking unto Jesus. We do not see him now, the scripture
says, whom having not seen ye love. And he has left behind
us no human artist whom he inspired and to whom he revealed what
his face looked like. We don't know whether he was
five foot six, five foot eight, or six foot seven. We don't know
whether he was of medium build or stocky. We don't know whether
he was big bone, small bone. He left us no record, but what
he did leave us is bread, and the fruit of the vine. He said,
these are the only physical tokens of my having been amongst you
that I warrant to be brought into my church to serve the interest
of nurturing the devotion of my people. That's why there's
no Saltman's head of Christ, no crucifix, no cross, none. But there is bread. and there
is a cup. That bread signifies and symbolizes
the body in which he carried out the very thing our text talks
about, endured the cross, despising the shame. The fruit of the vine
in the cup signifies his violent death, his blood poured forth
as a sacrifice for sin, all to ratify a covenant that would
be sure and certain in all of its provisions for all of those
for whom that covenant was made. Looking unto Jesus, may God help
us to look at him afresh and keep the eyes of our souls fixed
upon him. And for such people, in a very
real sense, the transition from this life into heaven will really
not be such a shocking thing. For having looked upon him by
faith and been sustained by his grace through life, they will
be raised to entirely new levels of the same blessed realities
when faith shall be turned to sight, but it will not be a different
price, but the same price. In that sense, it will not be
a great shock if we've lived looking on unto Jesus. We die
and we wake up looking upon the face of Jesus. May we so live
and may we so die. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you that portions of
it that we have read dozens of times When you are pleased by
the Spirit to grant our hearts fresh sensitivity and our minds
fresh illumination, those very portions become meat and drink
to our souls. Bless, we pray, this meditation
upon this very brief portion of your Word. Make it a means
to help us as we run with endurance the race that is set before us. we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.