Hebrews II: Looking Unto Jesus | The Whole Counsel

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Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder, and with me again is Jordan Thomas, pastor at Grace Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

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And if you haven't seen the podcast that we did previous to this, it would be really good if you could go back and look at that, because what we said there is the foundation of everything we're going to say here.

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We looked at the highlights of 32 descriptions of Christ in Hebrews chapter 1.

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That great fuel to move the Christian forward, no matter what the cost, and to never again be tempted to turn back.

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So this time, we're going to be looking at chapter 12, and a very familiar passage that we might be in danger of looking at and saying, oh yeah,

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I already know that passage. Like, I agree with that. I think it's a wonderful passage. You know, I mean, I look at a passage like this, and I think,

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I remember preaching on it. And then robbing ourselves of the opportunity of really dealing honestly with the

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Lord and living on it. So Jordan, why don't you give us an intro to this passage? Okay.

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Well, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 is familiar to many who are acquainted with the Bible, and especially the book of Hebrews.

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We mentioned on the previous episode that at our church, we preach seven years through Hebrews. We preach six sermons on verses 1 and 2 of Hebrews 12.

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You know, it's two verses long, six sermons each, you know, an hour or so. And you know, people think, you know, what are you just, how are you making up so much stuff?

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But I will say this, at the end of seven years, and at the end of the six sermons on this particular passage, it was embarrassing at how low we had drug the plow through so much richness.

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And I think the more, the more we look, the more we see. So let me read the passage, and then I'll give a setup.

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Hebrews 12, 1 reads, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, 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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Let me read the first three words of verse three, for consider him.

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And then he goes on to talk about the hostility Christ endured. So just a quick refresh on what may be a familiar passage, or acquaintance with those who aren't familiar.

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This is the main point of the application of the whole book. It's the opening phrase of verse two, fix your eyes on Jesus.

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And that's what we tried really to show from our first episode. Chapter one begins that way. In fact, chapter 12, one and two, is really a mirror image of the opening paragraph of the whole book.

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Same themes, said in an almost identical way. So it opens chapter one, and then he repeats here in chapter 12.

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Here's the point. And in between that, in chapter eight, I love this passage, because sometimes

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I get lost in the details. Chapter eight says, now the main point of what has been said is this.

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And he says, we have such a great high priest. And so it's the same themes in chapter eight.

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So he says it in one, he says it in eight, he says it in 12. But in chapter 12, he gives us that particular exhortation, fix your eyes on Jesus.

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So that's a basic intro to what's going on in chapter 12, one and two.

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So why don't you walk us through some of the specific exhortations that he gives for how we run the race.

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And then we can stop and just take some time to look at that command, which in the Greek is a lot more specific.

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I mean, oftentimes preachers say, well, in the Greek, this means this, and it doesn't help. But this is one of those occasions where getting an understanding of the

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Greek word really clarifies exactly how it is we run the race.

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Yeah. No, I couldn't agree more. So let's hold off on the Greek nerd stuff for just a minute. And I'll go back to just overviewing the main exhortations.

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I see it as threefold, lay aside, fix your eyes, consider him. That's verse one, verse two, verse three.

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But it's in view of something. That's the way it opens. Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, therefore, it takes you right back to chapter 11, and you get the examples of the faithful.

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And if you look at each of the characters, the cast of characters in chapter 11, the author of Hebrews paints them in quite a positive light.

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But you go back and read the actual accounts that are connected to the episodes of their lives that the author of Hebrews uses.

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And even in those episodes, not to mention the broader territory we have biblically of the narration of their lives, none of these people are heroic.

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They all have massive gaping holes in terms of flaws after they exercise what

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Genesis says of Abraham, putting his faith in becoming Messiah and being counted righteous.

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So post -conversion, he has some... Abraham has some incredibly low points.

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So Hebrews 12 says, therefore, in light of this great cloud of witnesses, we're not to look back at them and say, well, they were perfect examples of what it looks like to faithfully follow

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Christ. But there is something that's a common denominator between each of them. And in light of that common denominator, we too should exercise faith in the

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Redeemer. Well, what's the common denominator? It's the faithfulness of Christ.

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It's what he did for them and how he continued to preserve them.

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It even says that throughout the chapter. But let me give one example. Moses. We're told in Hebrews 11 how he found courage to walk away from Egypt.

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And we may say, well, you know, that was super easy. Anybody could have done it. He's raised in the palace of the

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Pharaoh. He's got all the privileges. He's the heir apparent. He's about to get everything handed to him, silver platter that he really already was raised with, the silver spoon.

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But we're told in Hebrews 11, he was able to walk away from all of that because he considered, this is quote, the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt.

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Next verse, he saw him who is unseen. So there was something more compelling about his

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Redeemer than all the treasures of Egypt. And he counted it no sacrifice to give up all of that to have

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Christ because we're surrounded by people who have proven Christ to be of greater value than anything and everything.

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Abraham leaving it all, going to a land he didn't even know, you know, where it was going to end up.

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And Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Jephthah, the prophet, all these people, folks being sawn in half.

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I mean, that's in the passage. They're literally put in a log that's hollowed out and cut in half.

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People, it says, hiding in caves and holes in the ground, shutting the mouths of lions,

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Daniel, I presume. Like, because we have people like this, let us look to Christ also, because not one of them finished their race and said he wasn't worth it.

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None of them. So the common denominator is Christ is faithful and he's worth any possible sacrifice that we might make.

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So that's one aspect. We're surrounded by plenty of examples, but it also says they're not made complete without us at the end of chapter 11, which

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I think means in large part, especially that our faith should be so seamless with theirs that when the completed totality of the redeemed, old and new covenant believers, both redeemed by the same

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Savior, are all united in one mass in glory, our faith looks pretty identical to their faith.

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We're going to complete them. We're going to perfect them is the way it ends in chapter 11. So therefore do a couple of things, lay aside anything that would slow you down, maybe good things, definitely sinful things, cast them off.

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You can't run a race, bogged down with all those things. Look at Christ, and as you do that, consider the hostility he endured, verse 3.

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So I'll pause there and see what thoughts you have or how you want to jump in. I think that pointing that out really is an encouragement to the

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Christian to consider that there are apparently insignificant little races that we run.

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Imagine a mom chasing kids around the house, almost a literal race, and then dad getting in the car and going to the same work that he went to.

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He's been there for 20 years. Is it really that important? If we don't understand how important the life that God has given us here is, we're okay with tossing it away.

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If I drop a penny down a drain, I don't fall to pieces. I don't call for help.

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If I drop a hundred dollar bill down the drain, I'm like, okay, all the earth has to stop until I get my money back.

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So is my life a penny life or is it something extraordinary because I've been united to Christ?

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And you mentioned the men and women of chapter 11 and the seamless faith, like precious faith,

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Peter says. And then Peter says almost the exact same thing you said about Moses, that having not seen

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Christ, we rejoice in him with a joy unspeakable. We love him even though we have not seen him, like Moses.

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So wonderful realization that what's about to come in the command to run well is part of that great company of all believers from the beginning of time.

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And my obedience today, my loving, cheerful dependence upon God today that results in obedience is part of completing the great race that they began.

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Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think one of the most precious phrases of all of Hebrews, which comes in chapter 11, is not about any of the faithful, it's about God.

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Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. Well, of whom would

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God speak like that? Is it possible that I could be among that precious privileged subset of humanity?

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It is because Christ the priest, chapter nine, we'll talk about this later, has taken his blood into the true holy of holies and anybody who rests by faith on him, the risen redeemer, is somebody about whom the

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Father would say, I'm not ashamed to be called their God. And, you know, there's no Hebrews... Heroes, as I said in chapter 11, there are no heroes in Hebrews chapter 11 except Christ.

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Oh, yeah. I totally agree. Yeah. And so now he's telling us how we, on this side of the cross, at this stage of redemptive history, are to run the same race that our forebears ran in the old covenant.

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As they look forward to the redeemer, as we look back upon him and his coming, returning glory, how we are to run this race and it be said of us,

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God's not ashamed to be called our God. Well, what would that look like? Yeah. So chapter 11, the weak were made strong by faith, we're told.

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So it's a great group of weaklings, which great, because we fit. Okay, so great, it's our people, weaklings.

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We say to people oftentimes, kind of religious and spiritual sounding things, which aren't in themselves wrong, but maybe not as helpful as they could have been.

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We say, well, you do that by faith. So, Jordan, in this passage, we have some very specific aspects of faith's activity.

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How does faith grab hold of the realities of Christ in a way that produces a race? So why don't you help us with that?

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Okay, well, just to use the analogy that the author uses in chapter 12, this is a race, the

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Christian life is a race. We've heard it said before, this is a very good way to put it. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

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And so as we're running this race, we're to do it with endurance. Well, how do we endure?

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How do we continue to plot along in this long marathon type race of the

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Christian life? Well, one is, don't carry things that impede your race toward Christ.

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So that's the weight, that's the encumbrance in the passage. Maybe not necessarily a sinful thing, but something that for you has proven to be a distraction in your pursuit of Christ.

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And I think you look back at chapter 11, a lot of people laid aside a lot of things that may not have definitively been sinful in every situation, but they were unhelpful.

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And so we want to constantly be taking inventory. And if I'm in a marathon, am

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I going to wear a coat of armor to try to run down the pathway? Probably not.

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But the second thing's more clear, every sin lay aside every sin.

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And it goes back to what we were saying in our previous episode, how would we hang on to that for which our

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Savior died? And, you know, again, I think tenderhearted

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Christians can easily beat themselves up about this. We all feel the pain of our retained depravity.

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That's not going away until we meet Christ in glory. But we do have an answer for our sin.

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And the answer is not continue to live in it because your depravity is not going away. The answer is all over scripture, places like 1

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John, confess. You have an advocate. He sits in the presence of the Father.

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He'll forgive you. He will empower you to walk in obedience. So that's one part of the race.

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Put away everything, every encumbrance and every sinful thing that impedes your progress in moving toward Christ, His fullness now and His face forever.

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So that's one part of the race. It does remind us all through scripture, the same basic reality.

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In Romans 6, do not present your bodies any longer as the instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God.

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You can't present yourself to sin again. You can never go back. Present yourself to God. Present your bodies as instruments of righteousness.

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Not long ago, you preached at Christ Church in New Albany using Romans 6 with the question, how is your slavery paying you?

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How do you like your slavery? Slavery to Christ or slavery to the old sins? So to run well, laying aside even good things that would impede us, especially sinful things.

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But what about this looking unto Jesus? Yeah, yeah. It's hard not to just have already said that earlier because that's actually the answer.

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And so if you're going to run a literal marathon, it would behoove you to know where the finish line is. So you don't just run aimlessly through the city, you know, for endless hours or days to know where you're going.

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How do you lay aside encumbrances? How do you lay aside sin?

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How do you run this race to which, you know, we're all as believers called? The answer is looking unto

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Jesus or New American Standard would say, fix your eyes on Jesus. And this looking is, as you mentioned earlier, an impregnated word in the original, aphirontes, that alpha, that a sound at the beginning is actually a negative.

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So if we said unholy, it negates holy. That's kind of how that first letter works on this

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Greek word, it negates it. It means look off, that's the negative part, as you look upon Christ.

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So it's look off everything that distracts you from seeing him as you look on, fix your eyes upon him.

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So you can't look in two directions at the same time, you know, it's humanly impossible. Similarly, you can't look at Christ and, you know, be empowered to run the race that he's called us to run, while we're also looking, you know, elsewhere, particularly in sinful directions.

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So the laying aside of the weights and sins, it's a participle, I -N -G, laying them aside.

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It's an ongoing, you know, keep laying those things aside. Well, so is this looking unto

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Jesus, it's a participle, it's an I -N -G, but it's meant as a command, fix your gaze on Christ.

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You can't look two ways. So he's the finish line, as you look at him, you're actually drawn in to faithfulness in the race toward him.

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So a lot of people have thought a lot about this passage. We're not the first ones to think about it. What does looking to Jesus mean?

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Let me just give a quick kind of march through church history, how some of our brothers and sisters have applied this passage, how they've explained it.

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One of the earliest, Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, discipled by the

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Apostle John, wrote to the church at Ephesus, and he said to them in his letter to the

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Ephesians, among other things, he said, apart from Christ, let nothing dazzle you. And I found that really helpful.

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One is, is he dazzling? Do I find him that way at all? And then, is he so dazzling that nothing else could possibly compare?

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And so if that sounds like super spiritual, holier -than -thou talk, I just want to remind everybody, that's the way that people who were discipled by people that Jesus discipled taught.

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So Jesus disciples John, John disciples Ignatius, Ignatius says something like that, apart from Christ, let nothing dazzle you.

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That's the fixing your eyes on Jesus. And you have to do like we were talking about in the last episode, biblically, look at the facets of his glory, look at the accomplishments of his redeeming work, take pains to see his gospel labors for you, and what he accomplished in redemption.

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Other people, like one of our favorite, Isaac Ambrose, he says, you cannot tire,

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T -I -R -E, you cannot wear out, you cannot fatigue a holy soul from looking unto

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Jesus. I've never heard of a Christian, church history or contemporary, say,

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I've just seen too much. No more for me, please,

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I'm full. From now to eternity, I've got enough. Because it's this complex experience where you are satisfied, but your capacity is expanded as you embrace him and see him.

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So we're enabled to run the race faithfully, as we fix our eyes on Jesus, being satisfied and enlarged in our capacity to want more.

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He both fills and increases our appetite. So that would be

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Ambrose and Ignatius. Theodore Monod, he sounds to me like somebody who was first century.

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I found out not too long ago, he was actually 20th century, died in 1912, I think. So I guess 19th, 20th century,

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French theologian, pastored in Canada, back to France. He has a little booklet that's a meditation on Hebrews 12, one and two.

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That's the biggest little book I've ever read. I don't even think it qualifies to be a booklet. It's like a pamphlet.

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It's like the size of a poor man's money clip. But it's amazing how much is packed in, in terms of practical theology.

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What does it look like to look unto Jesus? It's almost criminal not to own a copy. I think it's 95 cents to get it online.

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Bible Truth Publishers, Theodore Monod, Looking Unto Jesus, little pamphlet. But he says in his opening phrase of that little booklet, only three words, looking unto

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Jesus. But in those three words consists the whole secret of life.

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And then he gives several pages of applying that. What does it look like to look unto

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Jesus? And I find it to be really helpful kindling for the soul and convicting and good fuel for prayer.

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So Ambrose and Ignatius and Monod, and I mentioned in the close of the last episode, if that's retained, that guys like William Gouge, 1600s

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Britain, preached for 30 years on the book of Hebrews.

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He preached for years on Hebrews 12, one and two. I think his were mainly noon day, midweek, like a

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Wednesday business lunch. And I've, you know, I don't know if it's fable or accurate, but that people would arrange their business trips to the city to be there on Wednesday so they could hear

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Gouge talk about Hebrews. But he was doing this looking unto

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Jesus, just phrase after phrase, passage after passage, showing the beauty and grandeur and gospel accomplishments of the son.

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That's what looking unto Jesus sounded like from some of our brothers and sisters.

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I think one application of this passage that we mentioned as we were talking before the podcast is that this is not just a thing you do as an individual.

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And that to me is actually quite shocking, you know, because you think, no, no, no, I mean, serve, witness, attend worship with, but when it comes to looking to Jesus, it's just me and Jesus, and that's the end of the story.

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But happily, it's not. Yeah, yeah. I'm so thankful that it's not. Yeah, sanctification is a community project, and we look to Christ together.

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So just for example, what is it, 12 or 13 of the New Testament epistles are written to entire churches. The book of Hebrews is written to an entire church, not written to an individual believer.

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So there's a lot of we, us, our, even in this passage, not to mention the whole book of Hebrews, since we have been surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside, let us run with endurance, fixing our eyes on the author and perfecter.

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So there's a lot of corporate. And if you understand that this is a sermon, a letter written to a congregation, it completely informs the way we look unto

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Jesus. And the overall thrust of the letter carries that same, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

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There's so much of that in Hebrews. But right here, the looking unto Jesus is a together look.

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And I think that's why local churches have often been described as embassies of heaven. What are we going to do in glory?

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Well, the book of Revelation is one protracted look at the most beautiful person in the universe.

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And you see this enthroned king, redeemer, receiving worship and being adored and extolled.

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Well, that's what these embassies, local churches, you know, people said the dress rehearsal for eternity is coming together in congregations and looking to Christ together.

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That's what is happening in chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. The author of the letter is saying, let us all congregationally, corporately together, fix our gaze on him.

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I mean, we could say a lot about practically what that looks like for you and for me. How can I help others do that? I'll just mention one passage,

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Colossians 1, proclaim him. You don't preach about him.

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You actually proclaim him, all of his wonder, all of his beauty, the facets of his glory, so that we can present one another, complete in Christ.

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So the way we complete and mature in Christ is proclaiming him. That's what looking to him is.

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It's looking at the particular biblical aspects of his person and his work,

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Christ and him crucified. Yeah. Another passage that comes to mind for that, you know, in Ephesians 4, the motif of the body.

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So each part working together. And how? By speaking true to one another, we are coming to that full measure of the stature of Christ, which is a baffling statement.

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Yeah. So we each have a part, not just the pastor or pastors, but we each have a part to play.

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If we're connected vitally to Christ, then we must be part of the channel of bringing the great truths of Christ to other believers in a way that helps them do exactly what we've been talking about, looking unto

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Jesus, transformed from glory unto glory, looking away from, looking toward.

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Think how easy it is in our conversations. Both of our churches have lunches together often as a church.

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And it's so easy to leave the sermon and then sit beside someone at lunch.

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And I have done it so many times. And you just kind of, you know, the sermon is a pretty heavy thing and you just kind of go into the light things of life.

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Instead of, and I'm not talking about being preachy or artificial, but instead of out of an organic delight in Christ and God's working in your own heart, but also an intentionality, turning to the friend and in the way you talk to each other, helping each other not be preoccupied with secondary issues.

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Whatever the political thing is that's happening today, whatever the, you know, we're talking right now and we're looking at issues with COVID rising again.

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It is so easy to get to church and say, what you read this week on COVID. Well, who cares?

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It's so temporal. We could help each other to lay aside secondary things and embrace

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Christ. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to just say one thing, especially to, let's say there's, you know, a discouraged believer who stumbles upon this episode and says, you know,

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I don't feel like I'm part of a church where we're helping each other look to Christ. Instead of giving up on your congregation,

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I would like to say to such a person that you have a role to play and you are called by the

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King to help others look to him. And like you said, it's not preachy at everybody, not speak the truth as love, but speaking the truth in love, we're to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even

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Christ. Well, how can my speech as one little believer in a congregation help others mature in Christ?

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Well, it does include speaking of him in any Christian, in any congregation, young, old, male, or female has ample opportunity to help one another do that.

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In fact, I would say, God has put us in our respective congregations precisely for that purpose, that we could help one another be built up in Christ and look to him together and interpersonal conversations or, you know, prayer time, small group

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Bible studies. I mean, we could think of lots and lots of ways that this could be applied from any believer in any congregation.

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And the father would take great delight in his children, helping his children look to his son.

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That's what I think Hebrews 12 is about. Yeah. And you mentioned it in our previous podcast, to spend so much time with Christ that we walk away with the smell of his perfume, his cologne, you know.

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So, one of my favorite quotes by John Newton, as a pastor, he had a favorite prayer, help me to preach as I ought and live as I preach.

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But we can adapt that to any believer. Help me to live, to speak as I ought about Christ, but to live as I speak.

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Amen. So, we've just given a couple of, you know, kind of flybys over Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.

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And we really hope that this would just be kind of a springboard for you to fill your free moments throughout the day with frequent, you know, turning of the heart and soul again and again to Christ.

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And you can go back to chapter 1 and look at those 32 descriptions. Look away from in order to make room for these.

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And that you being transformed, then become a part of others also being transformed as together we help each other look at Christ.