So Great A Cloud Of Witnesses

Hebrews 12 and the Great Cloud of Witnesses

Turn with me once again to the book of Hebrews, now chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12. As we enter into a tremendously important, well-known, but important section of this book, let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our time together.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we seek to handle your word aright this morning, we would ask that you would once again meet with us, that you would protect us from distraction, Lord, that you would help us to hear your word, to be encouraged thereby, and conform the image of Christ.

If there be any amongst us this day who have not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, may they see him in his glory. And even in this text, which exhorts us as believers to be faithful, might they hear the gospel, and might you show yourself powerful in the salvation of your people.

We pray all these things in Christ's name, amen. Last week we, in a very non-reformed Baptist way, covered 21 verses. Some of you may still be recovering from that effort. It may have affected your work week.

But we did manage to make it through to chapter 12. For those of you who are visiting, we have been studying through the book of Hebrews. When I have the opportunity of preaching, and we're getting toward the end.

But if you're new to us, we generally don't go all that fast in our survey of the scriptures. We want to listen to what the word says. We want to make application. And certainly, now that we've come to the 12th chapter, we come to a text that will demand a great deal of attention from us.

Because it surely contains tremendous treasures for the believer in Jesus Christ. Once again, I remind you that chapter and verse divisions are a modern phenomenon. And therefore, we must be very careful to see the close connection that exists between these words.

But if I were to be, and what had come before. But if I were to be suggesting a chapter division, this would be a good place. Because very clearly there is a transition. There is a movement in the author's mind.

He has moved out of the faith chapter. And is now making application of what was a really lengthy sermon illustration. And so, he begins chapter 12 by saying,. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every weight, or every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, or clings so closely to us.

And let us run with endurance or patience the race that is set before us, or marked out in front of 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.

The Misreading of the Great Cloud of Witnesses

Now, I have said many times before that addressing a text this well known to so many can be somewhat dangerous. It's dangerous in that if you have memorized these words, as many of you have, then you sort of feel like you already know what's there.

It's like preaching on John 3 .16. Why does anyone bother? We all know what it says, right? Well, actually, there's a lot of misunderstanding about that particular text and many others. But the problem is, when you hear a text over and over and over again, when you hear it used in other contexts, when you hear it used as sermon material and illustrations in other contexts, it becomes very easy for the mind to wander.

And even when we consider the words, just to automatically click into what we've already heard before and not really examine the text in a fresh way. This text also brings to us some myth applications that are very, very common that we'll need to deal with as well.

But literally every phrase in the text would be worthy of an entire exhortation in and of itself. And though I will somewhat try to avoid that, we may fall into doing it just in that way. There is so much to be said about each thing that is said here.

Now, first and foremost, I'm sure you already recognize that as we come to this text, we need to see it in light of the fact that the author has just completed this lengthy catalog of faith, men of faith, women of faith, acts of faith and obedience.

And again, we remember that this is a book that is meant to be encouragement to those who are under pressure to go back to the old ways. And so, obviously, when we begin by saying, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, we do not have to stop for a lengthy period of time to go, I wonder what that means?

Because clearly the author is referring us back to everyone that we just had narrated for us, all the way back to Enoch and Cain and Abraham and all those people that we had just looked at. These are the great cloud of witnesses that are surrounding us.

But immediately, we are faced with an interpretive issue. And that is, normally, this term is utilized, this verse, I'm sorry, is utilized to present the idea that we are in a coliseum. We are in a stadium and we are about to run a race.

And certainly, that's exactly what the end of the verse says, let us run with endurance, the race is set before. And so, very frequently, the idea is, well, we're down there on the field. And the stands are filled with all these people who are witnessing, they are observing us.

And so, the idea is frequently presented that all of these individuals who have gone before are now watching us. Their eyes are on us. Their gaze is fixed upon us. And this is supposed to encourage us because they've finished their race and now they're watching us run our race.

That is a very, very popular interpretation of this text. There's one major problem with it. Again, very, very popular. You may have heard it many times. You've probably heard it at a few funerals, you know.

And who wants to contradict what you heard at a funeral? I mean, that's a perfect way to get yourself labeled as a mean, terrible, horrible, nasty person. And so, we should just leave it alone, right?

But as you think about that, I want you to think about what the word witness means. The word witness. Now, you probably are aware of the fact that that term, the original language, is the term for which you get the word martyr.

Martyr. In fact, martyr is not a translation of Greek. It's a transliteration. That's literally what the Greek word is. Martyr. Now, normally, when we think of a martyr, we think of someone who has died.

Someone who has died for their faith. And there certainly are examples of that. Stephen is said to be a faithful witness. But that's really a Christian understanding of that term. That's really not how it was generally understood prior to the writing of the New Testament.

That's a person was simply a witness. A person who gives testimony. It could be, just as we utilize the term in a court of law, we call witnesses and they are to give testimony within the court of law.

But it also can be one who, by suffering, by loss of personal property or prestige, or whatever else it is, gives testimony for the position that they have taken, which may not be popular in a society.

And then, by extension, all the way out to the idea of a person who gives testimony by their faithfulness even to the point of giving their life. And that becomes the predominant understanding in later generations amongst Christians.

But the emphasis of the witness is upon what they themselves are testifying to. The problem with the normative interpretation of this text that a lot of people adopt is that in the preceding chapter, these individuals were giving testimony of what?

Faith. Faith in God, acceptance of His promises. They were looking for a land that was not theirs. It had been promised to them, but it was still in the future. And they didn't necessarily receive this.

And their testimony is to God's faithfulness and to their faith, their acceptance of God's promises. And all of a sudden, we go one little step into another chapter, and we change everything from their being witnesses to God's faithfulness to now, all of a sudden, they're spectators looking at us.

How did that happen? That's a pretty radical shift in what's going on. I think we need to recognize that if we understand what the term witness is, what's being said is we are surrounded by a great cloud of people who give testimony to God's faithfulness, not that we somehow have now become the central focus of all of these people.

The whole idea that they're sitting on the parapets of heaven and looking down at us would require a pretty major biblical foundation to understand that. And there isn't one. All there have been people who have developed a whole lot of piety.

And certainly, texts like this have become utilized. You connect it together with some old traditions. And now you start praying to saints and doing all the rest of this stuff. And they start getting involved.

As if once you die, you want to be involved with the ignorance and sin and defilement of what's on earth. Paul said he was torn between two things. To remain here, to be with the Lord. Not to be with the Lord, but still really here because I'm going to be the object of your prayers.

And I'm still going to be involved in what's going on down here. And maybe I can get some more grace for you. There's no concept like that whatsoever in the New Testament. The idea that those who have died and entered into the presence of Christ are now somehow still involved and they're observing all this sin.

And how often we're ignorant of God's truth and all the rest of this stuff. That's not resting in the Lord. That's not having peace in the Lord in any way, shape or form. And so I suggest to you that the statement that there is a great cloud of witnesses means we are not the first people to have encountered the difficulties of this world.

We stand in a long line. And the reality is we're observing their testimony, not the other way around. And so, yes, there's a race that's set before us. But see, they've already finished theirs. And the testimony that is theirs is that throughout that race that was given to them, God was faithful to them.

And therefore, in light of their faithfulness, we should be faithful. There's just simply nothing here about the idea that while they're looking down at us and we can sort of maybe get some help from them, as if we're running along the race and they're going to throw us some power bars or something.

Gracious power bars or something. I don't know what the idea would be. But that's not what the author is talking about in any way, shape or form. That changes the meaning of testify or witness from what has been used in the preceding chapter to something completely new here.

So while there is stuff about running the race and everything else, the idea that what's going on is that all these people that have been talked about in the preceding chapter are now observing us. That's not what the text is referring to.

Now, that doesn't change. I think sometimes because of the Reformation and because of the abuses that the Reformation addressed, especially in basically the creation of an entire pantheon of minor deities, which still exists within the Roman communion, where you've got this saint for that and that saint for that and you've got candles being lit all over the place and intercession of saints all over the place.

I think sometimes the result is when you're pulling this direction against an error, sometimes you can go too far this the other way. And what I mean by that is I have certainly, and I certainly have tried to counteract this as much as I can, but I have certainly detected what might be an unwillingness to look back upon those who came before us and to appreciate the lives that they lived and the faith that they demonstrated.

That doesn't mean I'm going to be praying to them. It doesn't mean I'm going to be exalting them and looking for grace from them or anything like that. But the reality is that chapter 11 would have been a clear example of the author saying, look to those who've gone before.

Look to those and realize that God has been building his church. He's been dealing with his people. He's been gracious and faithful for all this time. And he's going to do the same for you despite the difficulties you're now going through.

And so I think it's appropriate for us to look back over the history of the church and to be very appreciative not only of those who dressed like us and looked like us, not only just of those who happen to have lived since 1517 or so, but also of those who have come before us.

The church existed before then and we can look back. For example, one of my favorite saints of old is Athanasius, the great bishop of Alexandria. I'm looking forward to meeting Athanasius. Now, did Athanasius dress like me?

I don't think so. That doesn't translate to audio very well, but I have a bow tie on this morning as I normally do on a Sunday morning. I doubt that Athanasius ever even considered such thing as a bow tie.

And would there be differences? I mean, can I find anybody back then that I agree with 100 on every single thing? No. But oh my, as I read his struggles for the very heart of the faith, how encouraged I am.

Because if you know his story, you know that there was five times during his life, five times during his life, that he had to flee his church. Once with about 5 ,000 soldiers coming through the front door while he's sneaking out the back.

And the authorities were looking for him. Thankfully, there was no NSA back then. They didn't have any satellites circling overhead or anything like that. And so the story is told once they're looking for Athanasius on the Nile River.

And he's with some monks and they're rowing one direction on the Nile. And the soldiers are rowing the other direction on the Nile. And they actually pass right by and they yell over, have you seen Athanasius?

And Athanasius is under sort of a hooded type thing is, no, but I'm sure he's nearby. And they just keep on going and, you know, stuff like that. And he keeps coming back despite the danger. I mean, most of us could not have argued with him or condemned him if he just went far, far away, given how many times he himself was condemned.

But you see, what's wonderful about Athanasius is what he was fighting against was the Arians. And even though he had bent the Council of Nicaea, though he wasn't a bishop there, he's very frequently considered to be the leader of the one side.

He wasn't. But anyways, he was there. And he remained as the faithful defender of the Nicene faith. And that was specifically assertion of the full deity of Christ. Yet for many years after the Council of Nicaea, for the better part of four decades after the Council of Nicaea, it was his enemies who were in control.

It was those who presented a lesser deity, who did not confess that Jesus was homoousius, of the same substance of the Father. And they became predominant, primarily through politics, but then through the collapse of many others who had once confessed a sound faith.

And there were many councils that were called. Many of the councils that were called after Nicaea had more bishops than Nicaea ever had. And they condemned Athanasius, and yet he stood firm. Why? Because he was convinced that the Word of God taught the full deity of Jesus Christ.

And even though the majority of the prelates, and even though the Bishop of Rome himself gave in, Athanasius stood alone. That's why the phrase is Athanasius contra mundum. Athanasius against the world.

We look back today and go, he was right. Everybody else was wrong. But who knew it then? Easy in hindsight to look back. But here was a man who was convinced of the inspiration of Scripture. And even when churches and councils said, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, we depose you, go away.

He stood firm. There have been a lot of people like that. Sometimes we know their names. Sometimes we do not. Sometimes we do not. But the reality is that as we live so far down the history of this church, which when these words were written was very much in its infancy, the beginning of the church of Jesus Christ in the sense of those who now look back upon the cross, look back upon the actions of redemption.

It was very young at that time. Now we look back. We have almost 2 ,000 years of church history to look back upon. And yes, we look back and we see the failures. We see the times when the external church gave in to the ways of the world and embraced the power of the world.

We see all that. But in the midst of all of that, we see God's faithfulness to his people. We see a remnant people even during times of great apostasy. And so that cloud of witnesses has only gotten larger.

So many who have testified to the faithfulness of God and the truth of the gospel. And so with each generation, these words only become all the more real, all the more exciting, all the more applicable.

We can look back to the number of martyrs even within the past 100 years. Some would say there have been more Christian martyrs in the past 100 years than in the preceding 1900. We don't know many of their names, but we can look back and we can recognize God's faithfulness and the fact that they have testified to their faith in God's promises in Jesus Christ.

And so we are not alone. Sometimes I think we foreign Baptists wish we were. We like the small idea, you know. We sort of like to make distinctions and very proper distinctions very often. But we must realize that we are not the only ones that God is working with.

I'm so thankful that I've had the opportunity, for example, and I've told you before, of going down to Sydney, Australia. And when I'm down in Sydney, those Sydney Anglicans, I am so thankful that they're my brothers and sisters in Christ.

They love the Gospel. They love the Word of God. They love to hear justification by faith preached. They're just like those old Anglicans back in the day of J .C. Ryle and the others that still had a real faith in the Word of God.

And that makes them look very different from many of the Anglicans in the UK and elsewhere and the Episcopalians in the United States and by and large. But it's good to be able to look back and to realize that today we have so many.

We don't know all of them. We don't have necessarily their email addresses or cell phone numbers. But God has been building His church all along. And we are not alone. It's not just us against the world.

There are many who stand firmly for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And they are witnesses to the faithfulness of God. And so, that's just the transition statement. There is this great cloud and that cloud continues to grow inside as God continues His faithful building of His people, the drawing of His elect over the centuries.

Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, since we're not walking the road alone in that sense, this path has been trod by many before us. Then what are we to do? What are we to do? Let us lay aside every encumbrance, every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance, with patience, the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus in the Race of Faith

So, here truly is the conclusion of the faith chapter. And that is when we recognize what God has done, when we see His faithfulness. People often ask, why did it take so long for the incarnation to take place?

I mean, I know some atheists, Christopher Hitchens, like to mock how long God had waited to finally getting around to providing this way of salvation and all these people passing away. But one of the reasons for God's timing is that He does provide to His people an example on the part of those who have gone before.

I mean, what if we had no examples? What if we had no examples of faithful people before us who have lived not just a brief period of time, but entire lives in faithful service to God? It is really a convicting thing for me to consider how rare it is for me to be truly thankful for the lives of those who have gone before and the grace of God demonstrated in their lives.

And I think amongst, especially Americans today, who have really completely lost, by and large, especially in the younger generation, any sense of continuity with history. I mean, who cares about what people back then did?

Who cares about even just a few generations ago? I mean, how many of our young people have any thought of the sacrifices that have been made by citizens of this country so they might have the freedoms?

They don't care about stuff like that. Just give me my iPod and my music and my government programs and leave me alone. I don't have any connection to those people. I don't care about all those cemeteries and crosses.

It's pretty easy in a culture like ours for the exhortation found here to fall upon deaf ears. Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses. What witnesses? Church history goes back to Billy Graham, doesn't it?

Isn't that about as far as it goes? You know, was there anybody before him, really? We need to give thanks because when we're giving thanks for the grace that God has extended to preceding generations, that's going to increase in us our confidence that he's going to extend that kind of grace to us as well.

So, in light of their faithfulness and God's faithfulness to them that created their faithfulness, we have very, very practical exhortations. And the author is going to rather quickly transition, beginning in verse 3 and then especially 5 and following, into a discussion of the fact that God disciplines his children.

God disciplines his children. And he is going to tell us that if you are not experiencing God's discipline in your life, you're an illegitimate child. You may not even be a child of God. That's some pretty heavy stuff to be transitioning into.

But before he gets there, he gives to us what I would suggest to you is the single, firm foundation for any person who is undergoing the discipline of God to hold on to, to never let go of, and to have absolutely firm faith in.

And that is, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus. I had a ministerial friend, a man who was a minister. He passed away just a couple of years ago now. And I've told the story before.

I was actually sort of a student person on staff at this very, very, very large church here locally. And I was in the offices one day. And the offices would be larger than our entire facility put together.

Just the offices, if that tells you anything. And I happened to observe another minister on the staff there. I mean, the staff is almost as large as the crowd that's here this morning. Just take this guy down a few pegs.

I mean, it was not done with gentleness and reverence. It was not done in brotherly love. It was one of those situations you have happen every once in a while that reminds you of just how fallen we all are.

And it wasn't right. This man had not done anything wrong. And the other person was actually out of line in many, many ways. And so I followed my friend back into his office after this encounter had taken place.

And I remember saying to him, how do you put up with that? And I'm very thankful. Very, very thankful. And I'm also thankful I had opportunity of having lunch with him just, I don't know, about a year and a half before he died.

And I told him this story and how much it had meant to me. I was really glad I had the opportunity of doing that. There have been some people who've had a really big impact in my life. I've not had the opportunity.

There was Dr. D .C. Martin at Grand Canyon. Always thinking about, I want to get together with Dr. Martin. I want to talk to him about what he said in this class and that class. And then I get a word that Dr. Martin had passed away and didn't get the chance to do that.

So I'm glad I had a chance to tell him about this. But he turned around in his office and he looked at me and he said, he said, Jim, if you ever get your eyes off the shepherd and onto the sheep, you'll burn out of the ministry real fast.

And having just seen him patiently enduring misbehavior and ill treatment, I guess the context made those words sink in and stick with me. Here is a man who had taken this exhortation very seriously. He had fixed his eyes on Jesus.

And that truly is the answer for almost any of the quote-unquote counseling questions that come up. Some of you may have noticed that our church is a little bit different than a lot of churches. It's not just because Pastor Fry and I can't come up with anything better to do.

It's not that we haven't, you know, we get these things in the mail, you know, and we could have gotten hold of, you know, some companies to come in and, you know, do some, you know, color swatch stuff and, you know, the little banner type things.

And, you know, some of you may have noticed our organ actually doesn't work and hasn't for generations now. And so, you know, there would be room for, you know, maybe a few guitars and a drum over there, I suppose, you know.

It's not that we don't know what's going on elsewhere. And I'm not saying that every church that has a digital projector type thing, there are times I wish I could show you something. So, I'm not saying that's all wrong or anything like that.

But we do things in a certain way that basically goes back to a bunch of folks that are known as the Puritans. And they had certain convictions about what you do in worship. And one of the convictions they had was that the greatest counselor that anyone can ever have is the Word of God made alive by the Spirit of God.

But there's just nothing better than that. And some of you may have wondered, why do you all, like, you know, you're reading through Leviticus right now. I mean, really, honestly, there aren't very many seminary classes left in the world where we would be told that that's a really good idea.

That's just going to get everybody in the mood for worship. Let's talk a little bit more about what bugs we can and cannot eat, you know. I mean, and the world looks at us and goes, you people are pretty.

You're a few bubbles off here. You really are. But you see, the reason we do that is we actually take seriously the exhortation that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture is useful and profitable.

And we actually believe that the best way to make saints more like Jesus is to expose them to Jesus's words and not to programs and isms and everything else, rather than Jesus's words. That's a pretty strange commitment to make, but it's been ours for a long time now.

And so the idea is we preach through the Word of God. And sometimes that means that we're preaching through sections that aren't easy to preach through and they don't necessarily send you out the back door with a skip and a whoo.

That was wonderful. Sometimes you go out the back door going, why did I go just go through that? What did that Lord? What did I do? You know, but you see, there is a commitment that the greatest way to edify the saints is to allow the Word of God to do so.

All of the Word, not just the parts that we can actually make people feel really good about themselves about. And so that commitment flows from the idea that the Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith.

They are sufficient. And that is why one of the fundamental counseling assertions you can give anybody, it all boils back down to what are you looking at? What are you focused upon? Where is your heart?

And generation after generation after generation of Christians has come to the conclusion that a real Christian, a truly converted person, a person who has experienced regeneration, will always be the most satisfied, will always be the happiest, not in the ha ha ha, but the joyous ongoing sense of happiness when their eyes are fixed on Jesus.

Now, that's not going to sell a lot of books. There aren't going to be many people who are come to our seminars, but that's our conviction. And so when the author says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, that's not just some nice thing we can put into a hymn.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. That's beautiful. I love that song. And it's right. When you're looking at Jesus, the things of this world will grow strangely dim and if the things of this world are constantly getting your way, maybe it's because you're always looking at them.

You have a real desire for them. In fact, maybe you have more of a desire for them than you have for Jesus. Fixing our eyes on Jesus will very often result in fixing us and our priorities and our problems.

When I have people who come to me and they say, well, you know, I just, I just can't have any peace. I'm always worried I'm going to lose my salvation. I see my sin. You know, the only thing I've ever come up with to say to that person is fundamentally when you boil it all down, who are you looking to for your salvation?

Who are you fixing your eyes on? They seem to be focused on your navel. Every proper emphasis to be made upon self-examination and self-reflection. And the scriptures tell us, test yourselves and see whether you're in the faith.

And there's all sorts of people who just skip that part because they don't like how uncomfortable that might be. The reality is you can't keep your eyes there, especially if you're running a race, especially if you're running a race.

Because that's what, fixing our eyes on Jesus, this is in the midst of let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Now think about it. I guess we've got the Olympics coming up again next year or something like that.

Next summer, is that summer Olympics? I lose track. I know it's every four years, but then they've got the winter ones. I know they're talking about the Olympics in Russia someplace, and it's a big political thing right now and all that kind of stuff.

But it wasn't all that long ago that the Olympics took place, the summer Olympics. And so they've got the track and field stuff. And so you've watched people in races. And there are so many applications we can find here.

But one of them is clearly, I'll bet you didn't find anybody in a close race. Now I think Usain Bolt, the guy who's just insanely fast, I think I did see him once sort of start looking around at the end of a race because everybody else is about 15 yards behind him, so he didn't have to worry about anyone.

But people who are putting out maximum effort going for that line are not doing this number. Ah, look at all these people. Oh, this is great. Oh, sunny day. This is nice. They're not doing that. Their attention is focused on that line.

They have a goal that they're going toward, and they remain focused on it like a laser beam. And I think that's what the author has in mind here, is if we're going to be running this race, then we need to know where we're going.

It's amazing how many Christians like the idea of the race analogy. This is great. I'm running the race. And it's like, so where are you headed? Well, I mean, every day when you get up, do you think about how the race is going to go for you today?

What your goal is? What direction are you going to be going? I mean, it's a scary thing to think about a racer who doesn't know where he's going. Talk about absolute futility. You sure are fast. I am.

Ever want to race? No. Why? Because I never know where the end is. If I knew where it was, I'd get there faster than anybody else. But I'm clueless. And most Christians get up every morning, and they don't set goals.

They don't have—their eyes aren't fixed going one direction. It's just like, well, wherever I happen to go, I'll run nicely. And the interesting thing is, in that phrase, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, that might be referring to the fact that races in those days and today have very, very set boundaries.

Now, obvious on the track, there are some races you have to stay in a very narrow lane. And you go across that lane, you're out. You're disqualified. But there's a very defined boundary as to where you're to run and where you're going to.

Everybody's going to the same spot. And hopefully, everybody has to run the same distance. That's what it's supposed to be anyways. Most of you know, I sometimes compete in bike races, and there's a finish line.

And there might be some people who get the idea that, you know, I think I know a shorter way to get there. That's called cheating. And you're not supposed to do that. So, both where you're going and the course that's going to take you to getting there have been set before you.

They've been set out by God. The final goal is that we're following Jesus. That doesn't necessarily mean that every single path, you know, that you're called to go to, you know, Jerusalem and follow exactly in the footsteps of Jesus.

You know, there's some people who get into that kind of stuff. That's not what we're talking about. The goal you always have is faithfulness to the one who has shown the way by his faithfulness to his Father.

He is the one we imitate. He is the one we follow. He is said to be the author and perfecter of faith. And don't worry, we're going to expand on all this stuff. We're just barely, like I said, it's going to take a while to work through this because there's just so much.

But we fix our eyes on Jesus because in running that race, that's what gives us the guidance. No matter what is in the way, I always have the goal that I am pursuing because I have fixed my eyes on Jesus.