For The Joy Set Before Him Endured The Cross

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Once again, this evening, the Lord giving us guidance, we will be working in Hebrews chapter 12.
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Hebrews chapter 12. Once again, let us ask the
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Lord's blessing upon our time. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, as we handle this tremendously important and instructive text, we would ask that you would gather together with us by your
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Spirit. You would lift up our hearts and minds. We would be instructed that we would be edified. All to your honor and glory, we pray in Christ's name.
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Amen. Well, I am not attempting to set any records in how slowly you can work through a particular text, but hopefully, as we have been looking at this text, you have seen with me that it seems almost every single phrase, every portion of a sentence of this text speaks to us and speaks to very important issues.
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This morning, as we moved into verse 2 of Hebrews chapter 12, we saw a description of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We saw a discussion of what it means for Him to be the author and perfecter of faith.
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But, that was only the first part of the sentence. Now, we look at the rest of that sentence and the tremendous truths that are revealed therein.
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But, once again, it doesn't take long to get the context. Let's read our text together, beginning at verse 1.
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Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance, every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us or clings to us.
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And let us run with patience, run with endurance, the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
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Well, once again, as we consider this concept of fixing our eyes upon Jesus, we saw this morning that part of the great exhortation and encouragement to us that is found in that is that He is the author and perfecter of faith.
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But, as soon as that has been said, the author then goes on to say, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Now, again, when you consider what has already been said in this text, this only elevates the discussion even higher, for now we have an insight given to us into Jesus' own attitude toward the crucifixion.
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In fact, there are few places in all of Scripture where we're given this kind of a discussion and this kind of information.
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I mean, where else do we have much of a discussion of what the Lord's mindset was in regards to this which
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He was going to experience? I mean, certainly, we know that in His high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, we're given an insight there into the certainty of the crucifixion, and the necessity of the crucifixion, and the fact that the
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Lord knew what the results of this would be. We certainly can recognize in the
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Garden of Gethsemane a tremendous struggle that is taking place.
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It's not at all because of the death that He's going to die, but because of the transaction that is going to take place upon that cross.
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I have many times had to explain to my Muslim friends who have wondered, how could
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Jesus, how could the New Testament be accurate in what it's saying about Jesus? Because there have been many men who have gone to their deaths very bravely.
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They weren't sweating, as it were, drops of blood. They weren't crying out, deliver me from this, if there's any other way, but not my will but Thine be done.
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And I've actually heard some rather blasphemous statements made by individuals out of ignorance of what's really going on there in the
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Garden of Gethsemane. It was not the beating. It was not the crucifixion. It was not that that causes the
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Lord to pray as He does, or to agonize as He does. That shows a very surface level understanding of what is actually going on.
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Instead, you have the Lord going to the cross knowing that in His voluntary giving, in His voluntary sacrifice, there is going to be something much more than this.
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As Paul says, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. And this truly is what causes the agony.
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This truly is what is behind the prayer of Jesus there upon the cross.
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And so we're told here that first, we are to look at Jesus as one who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.
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Now, we've just been told the previous part, it's actually the same sentence, that we are to run with endurance the races set before us.
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And now, we encounter the same root word being used here, that Jesus endured the cross, but He did so for the joy set before Him.
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Now, what's interesting is some have... It's amazing how much time was spent in various of the scholarly discussions of this text concerning a certain preposition that is found in the text here.
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Partly because the author of Hebrews only uses the preposition anti twice. It's actually a rather rare preposition in the
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New Testament at all. And so the question is, who for the joy set before Him?
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What does that mean? In place of the joy? Or is there some other meaning that is there?
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Well, I'm not going to spend too much time on that. I think the meaning is fairly clear.
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There was a joy set before Jesus. Well, what was it? What was the joy set before Jesus?
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I mean, some have said, well, you know, it was partly the fact that He had given
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Himself in humiliation. He had given up what He had had in the presence of God.
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And so that's what the anti means there. And so He sort of traded that. That just doesn't really make sense to me at all.
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I think it's fairly clear that what is being said is that there was a reward that the
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Lord knew would be His because of the fact that with faithful obedience to the
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Father. And remember, Philippians chapter 2, sort of a parallel passage here. He was obedient to the point of death, even the cross death.
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That's Paul's way of expressing it there in Philippians chapter 2. What does it mean that there was joy set before Jesus so that He endured the cross despising the shame?
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Well, I think part of it is wrapped up in the last half of the sentence. That is, there is, and we saw this just recently in Romans chapter 8.
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There is a set paradigm in the New Testament.
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That you cannot skip God's way of reaching
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His place of blessing and indeed exaltation.
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I mean, we are going to be glorified. We're looking at the golden chain of redemption in Romans chapter 8.
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And we are going to be glorified. All those who are called, they're glorified, they're justified. It's that golden chain of redemption.
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It's this beautiful, beautiful text that, to be perfectly honest with you, non -reformed folks don't know what to do with because they have to cut up into all sorts of pieces and make mishmash out of it.
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But we're going to be glorified. But what's the process of getting there? We'd like it to be a very easy process.
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We'd like it to just be instant. And there's all sorts of forms of pseudo -Christianity that offer this instant glorification.
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You get saved and your teeth are bright and straight and your hair grows back and all is well.
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That's not the case. There is, in Scripture very clearly, if we follow in the footsteps of Christ, there is humiliation, there is suffering, and there is no other way to glorification than through suffering.
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That's what Romans 8 says. We shall be glorified with him if what? If we suffer with him. There's no shortcut.
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There's no other way around it. And so I think we have the exact same thought here. That's why I really have tended toward the theory that what we have in the book of Hebrews is a sermon that the apostle
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Paul preached to Jews in the church. And Luke then wrote down, because the language is
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Luke and the thought is Pauline. And I think this would be a very close parallel to what we have in Romans 8 and in Philippians chapter 2.
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So in other words, what is the joy that is set before him? Well, it's wrapped up in the fact that he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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He has completed his work. He is now the one who is able to be looked to by his people as their mediator, as their intercessor.
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He has provided a perfect way of salvation. He has accomplished the Father's will in perfection. There is the perfect, harmonious accomplishment of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in establishing the mechanism whereby
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God has chosen to glorify himself. And that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And so the joy that was set before Jesus was the fulfillment of the whole purpose of why he came.
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He said to his disciples, it is necessary that I go to Jerusalem.
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It is necessary. And so he has accomplished that.
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And so it is not, as some people would say, well, if Jesus was God and he knew what was going to happen, then all this suffering stuff and all this anguished prayer stuff just doesn't mean anything.
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It has no meaning. If you know what the end result is as God, then the rest of it is just play acting.
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As if God's perfect knowledge of the future renders everything in time meaningless.
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And as if the God -man, who is fully God and fully man, isn't really a man at all.
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And he doesn't really experience time. He doesn't really experience what's going to be happening when he becomes a sin offering and things like that.
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It's a very shallow perspective. But people will make that kind of observation, that kind of argument, and say, well, if Jesus knew what was going to happen, then does it really matter what took place there?
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Yes, it matters greatly. In fact, as it says, yes, he saw that joy that was set before him.
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But just as the cross had to happen in time. That's one of the things that separates
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Christianity from all the religions of the world. The old religions would say the gods did stuff, but they really wouldn't bother telling you when, where, how.
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It was just sort of this nebulous thing. Christianity talks about who was governor and where it happened. Because God broke in the human history, there was a sepulcher.
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There was a stone. There was a body in a grave that isn't there any longer.
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You cannot separate out the fact that in Christianity, the claim is
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God has acted in history. Once you take that out, as unfortunately most of liberal Christianity has done, you end up with something that really isn't any different than the religions of men.
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And it does not accomplish anything. And so, this took place in history.
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It took place in time. Jesus knew what the joy set before him was, but he had to endure the cross.
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He had to experience that shame of the crucifixion to be able to accomplish that finalized work.
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Now, just because it was certain doesn't mean that the experience was not real. Just because God knows the end from the beginning does not mean that what he has ordained to take place in between is not real and meaningful.
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And in fact, its meaning is derived from the fact that God has chosen to bring the universe into existence in that way.
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We are not simply the result of the faith playing games with our destinies.
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God has a purpose in his decree, and he's working that purpose out to his honor and glory.
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So, there was a joy set before him. That joy that is his in his people who are united to him.
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That joy that is his when he can intercede before the Father and provide for them perfect redemption, perfect righteousness.
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He has done everything that the Father asked of him. The perfect unity between the
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Father and the Son has been demonstrated, and the final seal of approval upon that is the resurrection and the exaltation of the
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Son to the place of honor at the right hand of the Father. And so, that's the joy that was set before him.
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It's neat for me to think about the fact that Jesus rejoices in his people.
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That Jesus rejoices in us. That when we come to him, when we fix our eyes upon him, that he rejoices in us.
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We are his beloved people. That is an amazing thing to consider and something to hold on to in the midst of trials and difficulties.
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And so, we have a promise given to us. We have a promise for those who press forward.
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We have a promise for those who do not shrink back. Remember the end of chapter 10. We're not amongst those who shrink back unto destruction.
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We have a promise as well, and so we are to endure whatever it is God calls us to do, and Jesus is our perfect example of this.
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And so, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Now, I've mentioned to you many times before, and so I won't extend the amount of time
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I spend upon it, but never forget just how jarring, just how inappropriate, just how politically incorrect the whole concept of a crucified
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Messiah was in this context. The very word itself, as I've said many times,
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Stauron, Stauros, the cross, Stauro to crucify. There were people in the ancient world that would not even use the word.
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It was an off -color word because of how horrible it was to die in that way. It was the lowest possible death.
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It could not be placed upon or exacted upon a Roman citizen.
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No matter what you had done, you could not be crucified if you were a Roman citizen. And so, it was only for the lowest of the low.
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And so, if you were to ask anyone in that day what would be the most shameful way to die, it would be by crucifixion.
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Hanging publicly without a stitch of clothing, your body beaten and bloodied, struggling to push yourself up to get the next breath of air, exhaustion slowly sapping your life from you, utterly incapable of doing anything to save yourself.
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This was a horrible means of execution. It has always struck me as almost laughable that people can actually suggest that Christianity was invented by a really smart guy named
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Paul who came along and took something that happened with some itinerant
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Jewish preacher and came up with the brilliant idea of turning the world upside down by turning him into a crucified god -man.
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Oh yeah, that'll work perfectly. What ad agency did he work for? It's just so counterintuitive.
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It's so foolish. And yet, unfortunately, people are selling books with that very idea this day and, of course, they're the ones who get interviewed on NPR because, oh, that sounds really interesting.
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That's what's happening in our world today. The idea was absolutely repugnant to people. And Paul knew it.
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He knew to the Jews it was a scandal, and to the Gentiles it was foolishness. But to those who are called,
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Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And so he endures the cross.
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He knows it's coming. He knows it is necessary. He tells Peter to put up his sword.
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He has already told the apostles it is necessary. It is, I must go to Jerusalem. This is what's going to happen. And then it says, despising the shame.
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Despising the shame. I've thought about that. What shame?
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Well, there certainly was shame in crucifixion. As I said, it was the most shameful way to die. Is that what is being spoken of here?
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Well, the very idea of despising it. In other words, it was to treat lightly.
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It was to treat lightly because you have a higher goal in mind and you realize the people around you don't know what that is.
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And it's so important to you to accomplish that higher purpose that what you have to go through in the process, it just doesn't matter.
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And if people laugh at you and mock you, you just don't even care.
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You are so focused upon your goal that people can heap shame upon you.
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Now, we haven't experienced that in the Christian life. It's coming.
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There are people who are trying to do it right now. I think back when
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Proposition 8, this was back when people actually voted for something.
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It mattered. It doesn't obviously matter anymore. People can't really vote on things any longer.
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But the people over in California were voting on whether you're going to keep marriage or invent some abomination and put it in its place.
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And there is a video that I saw of a little lady. Had her sign.
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She was doing her free speech thing. And she becomes surrounded by an angry mob of homosexuals.
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And they rip the sign out of her hand. It has a cross on it. And they're stomping on the cross.
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And the whole time, what are they chanting at her? Shame!
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Shame! Shame! Shame! The whole time. Now, I personally believe that when homosexuals chant shame at people, that is one of the clearest indications that it's something they know far too well and are suppressing the knowledge of.
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They are projecting this upon someone else. They want someone else to experience what they experience every single day when they hold down that knowledge of God and engage in behaviors that they know are shameful in God's sight.
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But the reality is, most of us have not had anyone chant shame at us yet.
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But we know in our society, we're already being told. If you don't rejoice in the redefinition of marriage, if you don't rejoice in the perversion of human sexuality, if you don't rejoice in the destruction of human life, in other words, if you don't rejoice with the culture of death, shame on you!
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Shame on you for having Christian morality. Shame on you for standing for something that would oppose us.
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And of course we know, for example, in many lands where Islam is in the majority, the
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Christians there are meant to feel shame. There is a verse in the
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Quran that speaks of fighting against the people of the book, that's
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Jews and Christians, until they pay the jizy attacks and they feel themselves, and the
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Arabic word, I remember a number of years ago working through this passage with my Arabic tutor, and I'm not sure if it was this passage or this other passage we were working through, but I made the connection in my mind that the same word that is used of what we're to feel, most translations say something like, feel themselves subjected or humiliated, is the very same
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Arabic term that's used elsewhere in the Quran of what Allah says to Satan when he casts him out, that he has been humiliated, that he has been shamed by this action.
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And that's how Christians are supposed to feel when the Muslims fight against them and subject them and cause them to pay the jizy attacks in warfare.
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And so there are Christians in the world today who are made to feel shame because of their confession of faith in Jesus Christ.
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Jesus despised the shame. He treated it lightly. When someone's trying to make you ashamed and you demonstrate that you don't even give them the time of day, that you don't care, that that attempt to cast shame upon me carries no weight whatsoever, that really gets somebody's attention.
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That gets somebody's attention. When you're a parent and you're trying to discipline your child, you're trying to bring shame upon them for their behavior and they don't even bat an eye, there's a problem.
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You've got a problem there. But Jesus despised the shame. When you think about how he responded to crucifixion, when you think about the words that he said as he goes to the cross, or as he stands before Pilate, or as he stands before Herod, or even as he speaks on the cross, there is no evidence whatsoever that he gives any weight at all to those
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Jewish leaders that stand before the cross and mock him. Come on down! If you're the
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Christ, no response, no giving in to them.
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There is a despising of the shame. It has no impact upon him.
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And what's the only way that that can be the case? Is if we have such a singular focus upon the goal.
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See, for us, if people are mocking and deriding us, what do we think in our minds?
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What should we think in our minds? Am I being a servant of Christ? Am I honoring my
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Lord? Am I speaking His truth? That's all that matters. The only way that shame should have weight for us is if it would be shame that our
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Lord feels in our behavior. Well, what did Jesus say?
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If anyone is what? Ashamed of me and my gospel. Oh, we have a hymn.
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Ashamed of Jesus. How can it be? That should be the only shame that we are concerned about.
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Do we shame our Lord? Do we shame His gospel, His people?
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But when the world tries to cast shame upon us, we should remember, Jesus despised the shame.
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And we should despise the shaming of the world as well. Let the world mock and deride.
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We know what eternity is going to look like. They don't. They think this life is all there is.
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They're just looking straight down at their toes. They don't see the yawning chasm right there of eternity.
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They have tunnel vision. Very limited vision. We're not better because we see farther.
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We just have had our eyes opened by the gracious work of the Spirit of God. And so,
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Jesus endured the cross despising the shame. Pushing it aside by His singular focus upon His obedience to the
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Father. And what's the result of that? What's the result of that kind of successful obedience to the will of the
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Father? He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Now, have you heard that phrase before? I found this very interesting.
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Only ran into it in preparation for this week.
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Hadn't noticed it before. You've heard it before. Had sat down at the right hand throne of God.
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Where have we heard that before? We heard that at the very beginning of the book of Hebrews. Remember? I know,
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I know. You're going, yeah, you've been going so slow. That was a long, long time ago. How could any of us remember something that far ago?
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But Hebrews 1 .3. Hebrews 1 .3.
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And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.
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When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels as He has inherited a more excellent name today.
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So there's that phrase. Sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. But there is a very interesting difference between the two that I find absolutely fascinating.
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Here it says, When He had made purification of sins. Well, wow, that sounds pretty much parallel.
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Pretty much parallel to what we have in Hebrews chapter 12. He endured the cross, despising the shame.
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When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
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Now if you were to, it's difficult to bring this out in English and that's why you have to look at it in the original language.
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But the verb here is in what's called the eros. It's the simplest way of expressing an action normally in the past in the
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Greek language. He sat down having made purification of sins.
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Sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Okay. So, having accomplished
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His purpose, His goal, which was to make purification of sins,
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He has now received exaltation. But for some reason, if you compare that with Hebrews 12 too, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, the
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English sounds the same, but there are a few of you in the audience, I see a few
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Greek New Testaments wandering about once in a while. You don't see as many anymore because quite honestly most of us have our iPads and our phones now.
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So, it's not quite as conspicuous as it once was. But you may have noticed something.
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Now, I'm not going to ask any of Mr. Porter's Greek students to parse this particular verb right in the middle of the service.
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That would be extremely unkind of me. But if you've looked, it's a perfect, not an eros.
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Now, what's the difference between the two? Well, I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill.
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But, it does seem to me that the reason that the author might have stated things differently here.
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Now, you have the right hand of the throne of God, right hand of the majesty on high, so it's a slight difference, but why would there be an emphasis?
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Because see, the perfect normally emphasizes a completed action with abiding results of the present.
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Why would he make that change between these two references, the exaltation and the fact that Jesus is seated, the right hand of the
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Father in heaven? I would suggest to you, and I only make it a suggestion,
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I'm a little bit leery of building too much weight upon differences and tenses that far separated from one another.
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But, I think it's a fair suggestion that the reason that there is a perfect tense here in Hebrews 12 is because we are being exhorted to look to Jesus.
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And the fact is, he is seated, has been seated, and is going to be there as long as we need him to be there.
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There is a permanence, there is a finishedness to his work.
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He has despised the shame of crucifixion and therefore has been seated at the right hand of the throne of God and we are to look to him and there will never come a time when any of his people need to look to him and he won't be there.
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His work is finished. It is completed. It has been accepted, the very fact of the resurrection that he has been taken up to that position shows that the
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Father has accepted that work in behalf of each one of those who look to him in repentance and faith.
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There he is. He has sat down. Now the wonderful thing again, the word that is so rich and so compelling and so valuable and precious to the people of God down through the ages is there is nothing that anyone in this world can do about the fact that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the
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Father. You can come up with all the religions you want. It's not going to change the fact that there is only one who has been seated at the right hand of the
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Father who has finished the work of redemption. All the nations can gather together and rage.
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They can persecute and kill. The madmen in North Korea today can brutally torture and murder our brothers and sisters.
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But every one of them that experiences that horrific treatment knows that that madman and his minions in North Korea can in no way, shape or form change the fact that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the
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Father. And will say to every one of those suffering saints, enter into the joy of your
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Lord. There is no power in heaven or earth that can change the reality of this completed work.
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That gives us a foundation upon which to stand. That gives us confidence in the face of all those who would mock and deride.
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We're wiser than you. There's more of us than you. I don't care how many of you there are.
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Your puny little armies are nothing compared to Him who is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, who can with a single word from His mouth call you out of existence.
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You have no authority over me. And what has been granted to you by that very one who is seated upon the throne?
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What a tremendous promise it is to each one of us. That the one that we set our eyes to, and this again is why we have to elevate our sight.
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We have to look up from the things of the world. We have to look up to that place in heaven. We looked at it this morning in Revelation 4 and 5.
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We saw the Lamb there. Here is the one. Remember, the Lamb stood as if slain.
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That exaltation of our Lord, that position of power and authority is because He was obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.
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Therefore, God has highly exalted Him. We are to walk in His footsteps.
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And yes, if He calls us, if He calls us to suffer, if He calls us to die,
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He has the right to do that. He has the right.
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We are His servants. And so these words, every single phrase, is a storehouse of treasure for us.
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A storehouse of treasure. I would so strongly recommend to you the memorization of this passage.
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But not just the bare memorization of the words, but a contemplation, regularly, of the exalted status of Christ and the fact that we are called.
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We are called to look to Him. We are called to run with endurance the race that is set before us.
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And when the world tries to convince us that we are hopeless, that we are alone, we must remember the one we look to, the author and perfecter of faith.
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He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. All power and authority has been given to Him.
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And He is the one who calls us to serve Him today and every day.
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Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come into Your presence once again and we are awed at what
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You have done. We are awed at the perfecting work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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We are so thrilled that this evening we have utter confidence that He stands at Your right hand.
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He stands as our representative. We have an anchor that goes within the veil. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing in this world that can separate us from Your love.
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Lord, we thank You for these words. We thank You for these truths. We want to live in light of them.
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May we do so to Your honor and glory. May we do so in the big things of life and the small things of life as well.
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We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the Gospel. We love You and pray in Christ's name.