Lay aside, fix your eyes, consider Him | Clip from Looking Unto Jesus

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, 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, I remember preaching on it.

And then robbing ourselves of the opportunity of really dealing honestly with the Lord and living on it. So, Jordan, why don't you give us an intro to this passage?

Hebrews 12:1-3 and the Main Exhortation to Run the Race

Okay, well, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 is familiar to many who are acquainted with the Bible and especially the book of Hebrews. We mentioned on the previous episode that at our church, we preach seven years through Hebrews, we preached six sermons on verses 1 and 2 of Hebrews 12, 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? 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 drugged the plow, there was so much richness.

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. 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.

Let me read the first three words of verse three, for consider him. 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.

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

Here's the point. And in between that, in chapter eight, I love this passage because sometimes I get lost in the details. Chapter eight says, now the main point of what has been said is this. And he says, we have such a great high priest.

And so it's the same themes in chapter eight. 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. So that's a basic intro to what's going on in chapter 12, one and two.

So why don't you walk us through some of the specific exhortations that he gives for how we run the race. And then we can stop and just take some time to look at that command, which in the Greek is a lot more specific.

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

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. I see it as threefold, lay aside, fix your eyes, consider him.

That's verse one, verse two, verse three. 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, well, just therefore, it takes you right back to chapter 11 and you get the examples of the faithful.

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

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. They all have massive gaping holes in terms of flaws after they exercise what Genesis says of Abraham, putting his faith in becoming Messiah and being counted righteous.

So post-conversion, Abraham has some incredibly low points. 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 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 Redeemer. Well, what's the common denominator? It's the faithfulness of Christ.

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