March 29 1994: 6.45pm

Hebrews 12

We come tonight to the end of our studies in Hebrews and as we look back over this epistle we see in it the familiar pattern of virtually all New Testament epistles; the author. First presents his statement of doctrine; his statement of the Christian gospel. Then he works out its practical implications for his readers and, allowing for the context of its writing, its implications for us, Hebrews was written to a Jewish audience, so its presentation of the gospel is coloured by that fact; its outworkings are also coloured by the fact that these people had been through a period of persecution; though worse might yet be to follow.

The writer ends chapter 12 with a great statement: “our God in a consuming fire” (v31) However it is this fact which must underpin the presentation of the gospel. The gospel must begin with God- and Hebrews does so literally- 'In the beginning God spoke to our forefathers'.....and so on. But this God of ours who desires to speak to and communicate with men is a consuming fire, And herein lies the problem. Who was it who said, don't present a solution without first there being a problem to be solved''? Well; this is the problem. God is holy; his eyes are too pure to look on any evil; (he) cannot tolerate any wrong (Hab 1:13) And human beings are sinful and unholy and ungodly and this lies deep within the haert of man. So our writer begins by dealing with the Jewish system of law and priest and sacrifice. The trouble with these things is they cannot deal with the problem, They approach the human dilemma from the outside. The sacrifices could do no more than deal with external impurity; could but atone for individual sinful acts. The law could but regulate human conduct from the outside. But these things were of God; the law is good and holy and just; the sacrifices involved the shedding of blood and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”, And through his presentation of the gospel we are shown how there is a new covenant, to which the O1d points forward; which (8:13) has made the first one obsolete. For in that new covenant God said “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” (8:10: after Jer 31:33). And further by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross God has f10:14) made perfect for ever those who are being made holy. We are not naturally pleasing to God, it is (11:6) only by faith that one may please God; and chapter 11 which we looked at last week traced an O1d Testament portrait gallery of godly men. Now at the beginning of chapter 12 we have that great word 'Therefore'.

Because of all I've said, the writer is putting it, because of all that is to follow.

If anyone listens to or looks at the Christian gospel and then says, So what?" this is the reply. There are two great theref ore' s' in the New Testament epistles in chapters 12 : 1; Paul' s also in Romans 12: 1 (Therefore I urge you , brothers, in view of God' s mercy) . Therefore in view of all these patriarchs who lived by faith and in view of this whole gospel , let us; and this applies directly to us as much as to the Jewish audience to whom this was first directed. There are two other ' therefores' in this chapter 12 of Hebrew which I want us to look at tonight; there are also recurrent phrases ' let us 'see to it'

Firstly then, verses 1 and 3

“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus: the author and perfecter of our faith. who for the Joy set before him endured the Cross scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The author begins by urging us to get rid of the obstacles to the life of faith; the only life which God finds pleasing.

Here is a strong word; it has the feel of thrusting away, pushing to one side, (As the writer goes on to speak in terms of a race, he must take off all the clothing that would hinder him in his running.) We are to thrust to one side everything that hinders. How much there is in life to hinder our walk with the Lord; our walk of faith; our walk of witness to him. We live in a very materialistic society and in a pleasure-seeking and oriented society; one of instant satisfaction. Now it's not wrong to have time of leisure; to do things which give pleasure. But we need to be very careful that these things do not get in the way was not Jesus himself accused of such a lifestyle.

But we need to be very careful in the life we live.

When they threaten to do so, we must thrust they away. So we must be ready to thrust away; We must be prepared to be ruthless with ourselves. The writer is to go on to speak of God's discipline of us. We may be sure that if we indulge ourselves in wrong way we shall know the hand of God's discipline.

You've perhaps heard the saying "Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent didn't have a leg to stand only. Well when things go wrong it's our gut-reaction to look round for someone to blame; and if we can't find someone then we'll blame Satan. There's the story of the Devil standing outside a church looking very sorry for himself and the vicar comes out and asks what's wrong and the Devil says "Well you lot are always blaming me!" Sometimes it's God's discipline- and we need discernment- and if it is we must be ruthless. It may not be out lifestyle; it may be sin.

“Let us throw off...the sin which so easily entangles.”

When I was younger it was common-place for Christians to talk about their besetting sin? (and the AV uses the word 'besets' here). Now the Greek word really implies that which surrounds us all around and hems us in- but so often it is a sin which does beset us. If you have a besetting sin you'll know what it is; and in the days when this phrase was popular it was often thought to be a sexual sin. It might be; it might not. Christians are accused of being over hard on sexual sin, but 1 Cor 6:18 makes a clear distinction: “All other sins a man commits are outside his body. but he who sins sexually, sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?”

Many Christians do have a 'besetting sin' be it sexual or otherwise. If you have you'll know what it is and the word here is to throw it on one side; don't dally with 'itt We don't have to, inedeed we should not struggle in grim isolation; that is part of it, We don't The thinking in chapter 10 we were looking at two weeks ago; verse 25 (another 'let us') let us encourage one another; and (before that) let us not give up meeting together So we go on to let us run with patience the race marked out for us. We had that picture two weeks ago of that road leading off into the distance with a final point on the horizon. More than once the New testament speaks of the Christian life as a race; something to which we apply all our strength and vigour. Where do we expend all our energies? And a race does have a finishing line and a goal. What is our goal?

Verse 2 goes on to tell us what (or who) it should be!

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus”; which word originally was a turning-the-eyes-away-from| word; turn our eyes away from all those things that hinder: look to Jesus. When you're running a race, you'll only perform your best if you keep your eyes fixed on the track ahead of you. There's so much to divert our attention. In the bookshop it's all-too-easy to get my attention on the mere nuts-and-bolts of running a business and forgetting what it's really for. I'm not saying it shouldn't be run in a business-like fashion, but I think you'll see the difference.

Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus, as a man lived by faith: he was its beginning, for he is the giver of faith too. So all the patriarchs listed in chapter 11 lived by the same kind of faith as Jesus. But Jesus the one who makes faith perfect and complete. He made faith perfect and complete by bearing the pain- physical, emotional and, especially, spiritual, of the cross, Nowhere was faith more completely or implicitly required than on the cross where Jesus bore our sin and was separated from the Father; nowhere was faith more severely tried and tested. and as a jewel in this Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. The 'joy set before him' was to sit down at the right hand of the throne of God; to sit down, his work, as he proclaimed from the cross, complete. with nothing further to be done for the sinners he came to save. It is finished; Tetelestai; the debt paid and the slate wiped clean. His glory was the Father's glory but the glory was also in the throng who would sing Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, Caroline Noel has it in her great hymn

Humbled for a season,

to receive a name

from the lips of sinners

unto whom he came.

Faithfully he bore it

spotless to the last;

Brought it back victorious,

when from death he passed.

In a very real sense it was the salvation of sinners which was for the joy he would have in you being saved Jesus endured the cross.

We've got two more 'therefore's' to go through yet.

Verse 12 “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees! Make level pathes for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed”. The intervening can make us feel sorry for ourselves and want to pack it all in, But no! Rather strengthen; not just for yourselves but so that others will not stumble ; others who maybe are weaker than you are-. that is the message here.

There follow all those 'See to it's which are really encapsulated in verse 15: “See to it that no-one ceases the grace of God.” Now, notice it doesn't say what for so long I have thought it says. say ''Make sure you don't fall short" No: See to it that no-one. This see to its is, in Greek (1'm not trying to be all learned here, but the underlying meaning can turn the meaning of not Just a phrase but a whole Scripture, Episkopeo. It's the same word as that for 'bishop'; episcopos or one who has oversight. We are to have oversight for one another. lt's back to the same idea: the Christian life cannot be properly lived in isolation. This epistle was written to a congregation who had heard the message of the gospels some had fully believed and were born again; for others it was merely a matter of the head. and they wanted to stay with the familiar ritual to be safe, and our writer is saying “See to it that no-one falls short of the grace of God.” This pinpoints a danger which is perhaps even more real in an institutional church congregation and it's the warning about folk who spend a lifetime involved in the externals of religion without the heart being touched. At the beginning this evening I spoke about the inadequacy of the Jewish sacrifices and laws to change sinful men and women. In verse 25 we have, “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks from heaven”.

How will we (escape) if we turn away from him who warns us.

In the Christian gospel we have the voice, not from Mount Zion but from the heavenly Jerusalem. The earthly things will be (and are being today) pass away; the heavenly things the things of eternity will remain, Our God is a consuming fire, Sadly, in the midst of any Christian congregation will be those who (perhaps for a lifetime) to through the externals of religion without ever coming to a saving knowledge of Christ. And these verses are telling us that we have an oversight; we have a responsibility to be sure no-one falls short; no-one is left out. For to handle the things of God then to reject then as of no relevance to us is double tragedy and worse. 10:29 says, “How much bore severely does a man deserve to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot”. For such a one it will be a dreadful thing shaken; the earthly will pass away; the heavenly things, things of eternity will remain To handle the things of God then reject them is double tragedy fall. How will we escape if we turn from him who warns us from heaven

But there is one more 'therefore' and one more 'let us' left v28 “Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe”. If we are Christian, born-again, new creations in Christ then we are in an impregnable position. God may discipline us; he does so because we are has sons and he cares how we grow (or don't!) and develop. But we are in his family for keeps. If we are born-again God is not suddenly going to turn around and say, "now you are no longer my son; I'm going to destroy that eternal life I gave you"- which would be a contradiction in terms and our God does not contradict himself, We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. When all the things of this world have been stripped away: when they disappear before our very eyes then will there be that kingdom which cannot be moved, changed, taken away or destroyed. It's a kingdom for those who are poor in spirit (Matt 5:3). It's for those who know their own total poverty and rest themselves in the work of him who has indeed sat down at the right hand of God's throne.

So the final exhortation is for thankfulness, and worship. Can we ever be thankful enough to Jesus? Verse 3 of this chapter says “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men.” You and I; each one of us has (and sadly sometime still do) stand in opposition to him. We were totally against him. It was your sin and my sin which stood between Jesus and his Father at Calvary, but he so valued our salvation that he counted the suffering as nothing. Let our hearts be moved as we come to the end of this study of Hebrews to thankfulness- and with worship. Actually the AV has serve him' here and that is a truer translation.

It's probably best summed up in that other 'therefore' of Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you brothers. in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices. holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship.” Our worship here should be accompanied and ensue in an offering of ourselves; an offering of all that we are.