The Author & Perfector Of Our Faith

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus in Hebrews 12

Well, once again, we find ourselves in Hebrews chapter 12, the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 12. We continue our study, the first three verses. We already started here. We spent a Sunday morning and a Sunday night.

And I doubt we're going to get too much farther, even on this Sunday morning and Sunday night, for there is so much we must consider in this text. Hebrews chapter 12, let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our time.

And now, Lord, in these few moments that we have, we ask that you would gather with us, that you would open your word to our hearts and our minds, Lord, that we would be once again enraptured with love and awe at the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, what he has accomplished for us.

May indeed our eyes be lifted up and fixed upon him as we are exhorted in these words. May we come to understand what that means, and may we truly remain focused upon him in this coming week. We pray in Christ's name.

It was only a matter of weeks ago that we began looking at this twelfth chapter. And once again, we emphasize just a few things that I want to remind us of as we look again at the words of chapter 12.

We have now finished the faith chapter, but that doesn't mean that we have finished the subject of faith or faithfulness. In fact, that very theme stands very much behind what we see in these words. And so, as we encounter these words, we should not just leave what has come before off.

We should see the strong connection. We saw that, especially as we considered the first word. Let's look at the first three verses and summarize some of the things that we saw last time together. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us cast off or lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us or clings so tightly to us.

And let us run with patience, with endurance, the race that is set out before us. Fixing, lifting up and 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.

For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Now, last time we looked primarily at verse 1, but we recognized that we could not just focus upon those words because really the main exhortation is fixing our eyes on Jesus, which is found at the beginning of verse 2.

And so we talked about what it meant to fix our eyes upon Christ, the person who is running fixes his eyes upon the goal of the race. This is what keeps you from wandering all over the place, etc., etc.

We talked about the necessity of that. And then we talked about what the great cloud of witnesses were. And that it was not that these witnesses are primarily focused upon us, even though you might think of the Coliseum or the place of an athletic event.

And so you've got the witnesses who are looking at us and they're witnesses of our lives. That's not really the primary focus. They have been witnesses to God's faithfulness. They have already finished their race.

And so it is their testimony that we are looking to. They have already found God to be faithful in his promises. They then become testifiers to us of the faithfulness of God. And we then are to run the race in light of the encouragement we draw from their example.

And then we talked about laying aside every encumbrance. We talked about the fact that that doesn't have to necessarily be sins. There are some people who would say, let us lay aside every encumbrance.

That is the sin which so easily entangles us. But we actually took the understanding that these encumbrances could be other things. They could be things that are of themselves morally neutral, that they're not necessarily sinful things.

But I used the illustration from my own cycling experience that sometimes on a long ride, there's lots of stuff I'd like to have with me. There's lots of stuff that might become needful or helpful at some point.

And when you pick just one item up, it seems pretty light. But you put it all together, and all of a sudden you've got all this extra weight that you're carrying. And by the end of that ride, it's not light at all.

And so we can have things that appear to us to be okay. It's not really a heavy thing. I can take that on. But what happens, and I think this happens a lot in our lives, it certainly happens in mine, is you start building up all these encumbrances.

And they tend to breed. They tend to grow. They bring about more things that get in our way. And eventually, we get to the end of each and every day, and we are just exhausted from doing so many things, and don't really feel like we've accomplished anything.

And the point is, the person who is going to be running this race, who wants to compete in this race, that's their singular goal. And so laying aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, similar to having a garment on that would not be good for running a race, you can't move your legs freely, or clings to us.

It's difficult to get off of us, and inhibits our movement. We are to lay these things aside, casting off that sin which so easily entangles us, and we are to run with endurance, with patience, the race that is set before us.

And we had talked about what that endurance means. We had pointed out that in the very next verse, it is going to be said that Jesus endured the cross. Using the same family of words, the same terminology that is used there.

And so we had seen patient endurance in the lives of many of those in the Hall of Fame of Faith, in the previous chapter. And so we are called to run with endurance. It's not a sprint. For most of us, it's a much longer thing than that.

Certainly there are people that God calls either later in life, or He cuts them off with a brief life. Many of the saints do not live long periods of time. I think of people like Jonathan Edwards and what he accomplished, and yet he died at a relatively young age.

That has often been the case with many of the great men of God. But the point is that we are not running a sprint. It's not just a short period of time. It's however long that God calls us to be His servants, however long He gives us in this life, we are with patience to be running that race, the race that is set before us, not the race that is set before someone else.

We are not to be engaged in that attitude that looks at someone else's life and says, Oh, I wish I had their life. I mean, that sounds so exciting, or they have it so much easier than me, or whatever else it might be.

No. The race course is set out by our Lord for us. And the course that we are called to follow is the course that will conform us to the image of Christ, to His honor and glory. And if we question that, we are literally questioning God's goodness.

We are literally questioning His wisdom. And yet it is so easy for us to fall into that attitude. It is so easy for us to look at other people and go, Well, you don't look at that person's life. They don't seem to have the same trials and difficulties and pressures and heartaches.

And if you have physical issues, you look at someone who doesn't have physical issues and say, Why don't they? I could do much more for the kingdom if I didn't have these things to suffer through. But what we need to realize is our Lord knows exactly what to do for each one of us.

The race is set out before us to conform us to the image of Christ in the way that will honor and glorify Him. And if we don't believe that, then we really don't believe in the wisdom of God. And there is truly, I think, an element of faith, of acceptance that results in contentment, which many Christians lack because they have not considered this.

And not considered the fact that we are to run with endurance the race that is set before us. And that course has been set for us by God Himself. And so that was primarily what we looked at. And we did talk about fixing our eyes on Jesus.

But you could never exhaust that particular exhortation when you consider all the things that it might mean. And I'm not trying, purposefully, to follow after some kind of Puritan way of thought, to be perfectly honest with you.

But as I have considered this text, I have just come to the conclusion that unless we really pause long enough to unpack each of these phrases, we're sort of, in essence, shortchanging ourselves. And given how much effort we have already put into following the book of Hebrews, I would say this is one of the pinnacles of the book of Hebrews.

And therefore, it is well worth our time to consider well all the applications that would need to be made to properly handle this text. And so we look again at fixing our eyes on Jesus. And I'm not just repeating what I've said before because one of the things we did not discuss before is that, interestingly enough, in the original language here is a...

The Meaning of the Author and Perfecter of Faith

Now, please recognize when I say here is a literal translation of the text. Literal can have different meanings. The best meaning of literal is when you actually render in the target language the meaning of the original language.

That's the best literal understanding of something. But, for example, when we say, what's the literal interpretation of Jesus saying, I am a door? It's not that Jesus is a door, but to understand what the meaning of that actually is.

So, when I say here's a literal rendering of this, this is the absurdly literal, this is the as the words appear, but hopefully it will help you to understand what the writer is doing here. It says...

And the term fixing our eyes literally means to lift up our eyes and gaze upon something that's in the distance or something that's elevated from us. And certainly at the end of verse 2, what does it say about Jesus?

He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So, there is a sense of looking upward in the sense of recognizing we're not just looking at something as a part of this worldly scheme of things.

We are looking beyond what the physical sight can see here, which is why the secular mind finds these words to be so empty and meaningless and trite. But we are to be fixing our gaze, our eyes, literally, unto Thee, the Faith, Author and Completer, Jesus.

Now, what that is, and there's a number of places in the New Testament where this kind of formulation is utilized. And normally, they carry some incredible meaning, but what the original language will do is they will say fixing our eyes unto and then they'll put the definite article, the, which goes with the word, Jesus.

And then between the definite article and the word that's modifying, you pack a descriptive phrase. And so what you're doing when you do that is you're in essence saying there's something specifically about Jesus.

There's something that he does. There's something in his roles that you need to be keeping in mind as you are fixing your eyes upon him and the running of this race. And the description here is The Faith Originator, Source, Origin, Leader, Pioneer.

You'll notice a lot of different words I'm using there. And, Completer, Finisher, Perfecter, Jesus. So how do we understand this? Well, certainly it demonstrates that we have not abandoned in any way the theme of chapter 11.

I mean, that was the faith chapter and so now you really have the fulfillment of the faith chapter. It's almost again somewhat of a problem that we even bother to have chapter divisions in this way but it certainly helps in finding your text in the morning, but it helps us to see that this theme is continued right on through and in fact what's being said here is here's all these examples of faith but if you want to really see faith you look to Jesus.

He is the author and perfecter of faith. Now what does that mean? What does it mean to describe Jesus as the author and perfecter of faith? Well, it's interesting that term author it's used a couple of other places.

First of all, we already saw it back in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10. Hebrews 2 10. There Jesus is the author of something else for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things and bring many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

Remember that? There Jesus is described as the author of their salvation. Now interestingly enough, it's also used in the book of Acts. Acts 3 .15 where in speaking to the Jews but put to death the prince of life the term prince there is translating the same Greek term archagon, the prince archagon, archagos, the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead but most of your translations will have a little note there saying well it could mean leader it could mean something like a pioneer and in Acts 5 .31 he is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as an archagon, a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

And so what we have here is clearly a term that in the very earliest period of the Christian faith was commonly applied to Jesus. And when you hear the word archagon archay means beginning and archay in halagas, in the beginning was the word.

And so that's where the idea comes from of beginning origin source but that's not the whole part of the word you put it together and a pioneer is one who does what? Who leads into new territory who is the first one into a new area for example.

And so the various suggestions as to how this term should be understood are trying to balance the use of the word and the constituent elements of the words together. But we have in the context another clue shall we say that I think is very important.

And that is as the writer of Hebrews likes to do he's giving us two opposites beginning and end. Whatever the emphasis for archagon is the second term is going to cast some light upon that. And once again here the Greek term reminds us of for example Jesus' words in the cross.

We said to telestai it is finished. Talaiao means to complete, to finish. And this is the root word that is used here. And so whatever these two words are they're balancing something and then together they're saying something about faith and then all of that is being applied to Jesus and that is emphasizing something that we need to keep in our mind as we look to Jesus as we run with endurance the race is set before us.

So how do we put all that together? Well I don't think that the meanings like leader or pioneer really work here because of the emphasis upon finisher or completer or perfecter. There could be a way in which we understand it in this way.

That Jesus is the beginning and the end of true and living faith. And hence without Jesus there is no true faith in God. Now that would be a theme that is found in Scripture. That's certainly found in 1 John.

That is certainly an emphasis of John's exhortation is that you cannot have God if you do not have the Son. Because of the spectacular way in which God has given testimony to His Son in the incarnation and in the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit there is no longer a way to be a Unitarian and be a faithful Unitarian in that sense.

There is no longer a way of saying well I love the Father but all this deity of Christ stuff I don't accept. But the New Testament message is the time for that is long past. God has given testimony of who Jesus Christ is.

By raising Him from the dead this is the very Son of God. He is divine. The Spirit has now come. You can't reject the very testimony that God has made of His own triune nature and then pretend to be worshipping God.

The world doesn't like that. And the ecumenical spirit does not like that. But that is the testimony of Scripture itself. And so possibly part of the understanding is that Jesus is absolutely central to the very definition of what faith is.

There is truth there. But both of these terms in the original language tend to speak of activity upon the part of an individual. Not just an abstract beginning and end idea. But beginning as in origin, source, the one giving rise to and certainly that's really seen in perfecter and finisher.

And when you put the two together I would suggest that that's really where the meaning comes. I think sometimes what gets lost is that words have meanings in context. And when you put these two words together, that phrase has a meaning that each singular word could not have in and of itself because they've been brought together to express something greater than the parts.

The sum is greater than just the individual parts could be. And so I think what we have here is an affirmation of the fact that the saving faith, the true and full faith, real faith, is something that finds its origin not just in the sense of abstractly, but Jesus is the one who begins faith and Jesus is the one who perfects faith.

And I would see that as a fulfillment of Jesus' own words in John chapter 6. Think about what Jesus said in John chapter 6 when he's talking about He's come not to do His own will, but the will of the one who sent Him.

And what is that will? The will of the Father for the Son is that of all that has been given Him, that He lose none of it, but raise it up on the last.

Day. What must.

The capacity and power and ability of Christ be if the will of the Father for Him is to be a perfect Savior? Not lose any of those that the Father has entrusted in His hand. He has to be a perfect Savior.

And if salvation is by faith, not by fulfillment of works.

Of law, not.

By doing things to garner some kind of acceptance in God's sight, but if it is the empty hand of faith that alone fits into the hand of grace that brings about salvation to the glory of God alone and with no glory going to the creature, then that faith that saves must itself have a divine origin.

And in fact, it has a divine originator. A divine originator and, thanks be to God, a divine completer and finisher in the person of Jesus Christ. Yes, He is the beginning and end of the object of faith, but what is so encouraging to the runner, the one who is running this race, is that He is the one who began me on this course.

He's the one who started me. He's the one who's laid out the course itself. And He is the one who will make sure that I cross the finish line. Oh, I may agonize in the way. I may agonize in the way. As Paul said, it's God who has worked within me both the will to do according to His good pleasure.

It's the Spirit of God who is lifting me up and encouraging me and guiding me and directing me and making the Word come alive in my heart. All these things are true. The Gospel is a triune Gospel. There is no question about it.

But the point is that Jesus is the author and finisher of faith. He is the one who sends of His Spirit, and His Spirit is the one who is called the down payment, the autobahn, the one who says God has begun the work in this person and God will complete it.

And here this same theme is presented to us. We are to fix our eyes upon the beginner and finisher of faith, Jesus. I am so thankful that we are not a part of one of those groups that has been given a false teaching that, well, you see, faith is something you work up within yourself.

You just work to create that faith. And you've got to keep working at it. It is one thing to exhort Christians to faithfulness and to holiness. It's something completely different to say that we do this out of love for the one who has given His all for us.

That's completely different than saying, you've got to keep working it up! You're slowing down! I've discovered, for example, when riding with folks who are struggling, you can try to encourage them all you want.

If they didn't drink and eat well enough, they ain't going to really be able to do anything. You can try every kind of management tactic and everything else and it just doesn't work. If you don't have enough glycogen in your body, you ain't going to make it.

That's all there is to it. And the same way you can sit there and you can try all the which generation management are we on now? I've lost track. Fourth, fifth, tenth, whatever it is. You can try all the pious platitudes of the how to be successful stuff on people.

It's not going to make any difference. True saving faith is something that's divine. He who endures the end shall be saved, not because it's my endurance that produces my faith, but because the faith that saves will endure because it finds its origin and its completion in Christ.

It is a divine faith. That is why we can consistently if we understand the fullness of the Gospel message, reject any kind of work salvation and any kind of merit on our part while at the same time being confident in salvation.

The only way to do that in a balanced way is to recognize salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord and the very faith that brings it to us is likewise of the Lord. What a beautiful thing. I don't know about you, but there are times in life when it can become so stressful and there are times we feel so alone and when you consider these words when you consider the fact that Jesus is the beginner the origin the source and he is the one who will complete.

He is the one who will perfect. Can you hear those words and not be moved by them? Can you consider the perfection of our Savior and not be moved by them? Again, remember remember the purpose of this book.

Paul's going to say here in a little while I think Luke wrote it down but Paul's preaching I think he's going to say here in a little while you've not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. No martyrs amongst you yet.

It's coming. But they are already experiencing that kind of pressure. We've seen all the way through the book the book's exhortation there's nothing to go back to. Can you see how these words would have been so comforting to someone who doesn't have all of church history to look back upon like we do and their family saying you're a part of this little cult, give up on this Jesus guy instead.

To hear that Jesus is the author the origin of my faith and he is the one who will complete it. What a tremendous tremendous blessing that is. There's something else to see. Looking unto Jesus to look up.

It wasn't all that long ago that we worked through the book of Revelation and what did we see over and over and over again as we looked through the book of Revelation? Well, the constant theme that was repeated was here is a book that had meaning to the people who first read it.

They weren't sitting there going, man, this is weird. What are all these beasts and all these heads? I don't know and we won't know for about 2 ,000 years so I'm going to put this away and forget about it.

No, it had a meaning to them. They sat there reading going, oh, yes, yes, I see, I understand. And remember what happens at the beginning after the letters to the churches? In chapter 4 you saw a vision and it was a tremendous vision.

At the end of chapter 4, beginning of verse 9, for example, when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power for you create all things and because of your will they exist and were created.

Here is a picture of worship in heaven and it reminds us of Isaiah chapter 6 and the cherubim as they move about the throne saying, holy, holy, holy. Here is this picture of worship in heaven. And here you're writing a book to suffering saints.

Oh, the martyrs have started now because they're specifically mentioned. The souls, the martyrs under the altar, now we're getting into the real persecution of the Christians. And what does this book start off with?

Oh, there's exhortations of churches, but then there's a need over and over again to remind the Christian people, lift up your eyes. It is so easy for us to become focused upon the things of this world.

It's so easy for us, for our vision to be dragged downward and to become accustomed to the dullness of the things around us. And every once in a while when God all of a sudden jerks our head up, we're almost like, oh, oh, it's sort of like these lights.

Oh, yeah. You know, we used to have that one nice cardboard covered light. And now we have those. And, yeah, you can see me better, but, oh, I feel like I'm an episode of Star Trek or something like that.

It's really, really strange. How many lights are there? I'm not sure. I don't know, but only a few of you got that, but that's okay. Our eyes are brought up and it's like, oh, the glare, because we're not, we get so accustomed to looking down here and we see the things, the world.

Every once in a while, we have to be reminded there's worship going on in this universe and where it really matters, in heaven itself, things are right. Justice is done. You may be suffering down here in complete injustice and there may be evil all around you and if you just look, if you're just looking like this, wow, it's a mess.

How could a good God exist? Because this is, and this is all you see. And isn't that what man's really like? Isn't that what the atheist is really like? Who raises the objections to God? He's doing this number.

I don't see any evidence of God. There's a lot of stuff down here that makes me think God doesn't exist. Well, because you really don't have the proper perspective, do you? And you like to stay focused on these little things.

In fact, you deny there's anything else other than this. And so in chapter 4, here's worship, but then, but then came chapter 5, remember? And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back sealed up with seven seals and I saw a strong angel proclaim with loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping.

Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, is overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing at the slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which is the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

They sang a new song saying, worthy are you, the lamb, to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God and they will reign upon the earth. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and living creatures and the elders and the number of them was myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and on the sea and all things in them I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever and the four living creatures kept saying amen and the elders fell down and worshipped.

I don't know about you, but if I had been in that persecuted church, that small little persecuted church the might of the Roman Empire has now been set against me. The entire religious culture of the world is now set against me.

They don't like my exclusivist views. They don't like that I say no, Caesar is not Lord, Jesus is Lord. They don't like that I won't offer that pinch of incense upon the altar. I would look around and we seem so small and we seem so weak and then I would hear John saying look what I saw.

Because you see, here on earth God's people look persecuted and they are. They look weak. We are of ourselves. But you see, this little spinning dot of dust does not determine the purposes of the eternal God of the universe based on our observation of what's going on down here.

That is why no man, no atheist, no PhD professor out at ASU has any right to stand on his two feet which God gave him and designed for him to use and open his mouth which God gave him and use his brain which God gave him to dare to judge the creator of this universe.

He doesn't have enough information. And nobody ever will. Nobody ever will. But you see, what this letter would say and what the writer of the Hebrews is saying look unto Jesus. This idea of lifting up your gaze and realizing this world isn't all there is.

And the one that we are to look to, this Jesus, is this Lamb standing as if slain. And the description of him and the seven spirits of God means that he knows. He knows everything that's happening with all of his people.

He's not ignorant. Jesus hasn't gone off and is enjoying a vacation someplace. When Jesus encountered Paul, Saul, on the road, why are you persecuting me? He knew what was not only within Paul's heart, but the people he was persecuting.

They're my people. And that means you're persecuting me. And so you see how encouraging this letter was. Revelation. To the persecuted people, you need to realize the one you are following is seated at the right hand of God.

He's been enthroned in heaven. And look at what he's accomplished. And in fact, right now, it looks to you like every created thing in the heavens and the earth and under the earth is opposed to you. But the reality is that someday every created thing which is in heaven, every created thing on the earth, every created thing under the earth, all things in them will say to him who sits on the throne of the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

And is that not exactly the promise that we're given in the Carmen Christian Philippians chapter 2? What's going to happen? Every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That's a promise. That's a promise. And so, to those who were under great pressure to go back to the old ways, the writer to the Hebrews says, fixing our eyes upon Jesus. We're going to have to lift up our gaze to do so, because he is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

But you need to realize he's the author and finisher of your faith. And no one can oppose him because he is now seated in the heavenly places. What that means is when we stumble, when we lose our way in this race, it's not because of Jesus.

It's not because we lost sight of him because the world got in the way and a fog bank came in or there was a mountain in the way. No. There's nothing in this world that can block our view of Jesus. But how many times?

How many times do we divert our eyes because it's, ooh, that's not... Oh, look at that. And that's when we stumble. That's when we fall. That's why John says, if you love the world, the things of the world, love the Father.

He's not in you. That's why we have to be a separate people. We cannot be like the world because the world loves itself. The world is narcissistic. We have an object that demands the absolute utmost of our love.

And that object is Jesus. So you can see the exhortation. You can see the application. How will you this week? You know this past week how many times your sight went from one side to the other. You lost your way.

You tripped. You didn't see what was coming ahead. How will we fix our eyes more firmly upon Christ? I say to you, it's not by trying to engage in self-improvement. You see, we think about and we focus upon what we are passionate about.

There are people right now gathering in cities all across the United States and they're passionate about big, huge men in athletic gear who run into each other with great violence. They'll do anything for that.

And it orders their lives. What I'm saying is, if we are truly passionate about the one who has given himself so that we might have eternal life, then it will be natural for us to fix our eyes upon Him.

And the hymn writer got it right when we look to Jesus. The things of this earth, remember the words? They grow strangely dim in the light of His glorious face. Isn't it the case, don't we see, that really, every time we sin, it's because we're demonstrating we love ourselves, we love the things of this world more than we love Jesus.

If we're passionate about Him, our eyes will be focused upon Him, the author and finisher of our faith. Let's pray together. Our great and triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for the word that you have given to us.