For the Joy Set Before Him

I enjoy actually leading all the aspects of our worship. It sometimes is daunting, and there's some parts I don't feel as qualified for, so it's nice to have you back for sure. But part of it is I just enjoy being with the congregation singing as well. And it's kind of nice to just be part of it all instead of standing up here. So if you ever want to switch for one because you want that experience again, we'll let you do it too.

Just let me know. all right well for our communion passage today i wanted to draw your attention to hebrews 12 1 and 2 and one of the things we discovered this week when when we we stumbled upon hebrews 12 1 and 2 in our family worship uh and by stumbled upon i just mean you know we didn't go there on on purpose it was just the next verse we've been going through the book of hebrews together and we finish chapter 11 and we're reading Hebrews 12 1 and 2 and Wesley my son points out that it sounds exactly like the song never cease to praise that we're going to sing in a little bit here and I in fact moved that song to the end of the service because I think it's such an exciting song and I wanted us to finish with this like loud praising of God and I think it's a really moving song. It's very melodic. I enjoy the tune of it.

But also when we sing that song, I want your mind to be able to think about the words you're singing, especially at the beginning and the end where it talks about the race for running with endurance. There's actually so much scripture in that song. It's really amazing. So I wanted to quickly, just for our communion portion, I wanted to look at Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 and give you believers something to cling to when it comes to what you're doing for communion.

So in Hebrews, the author writes or maybe said, some people theorize that Hebrews was a sermon that was preached, that was transcribed. Said, therefore, because of the faith of all the previous people we just read about, because Jesus is a high priest of a better covenant, He's a mediator of a better covenant. Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

And so there's a number of things being said here. But first of all, we're told that we're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. And when I first got saved and read this verse, I thought there was like a group of people in heaven that were watching me. And that's what I really thought happened. And before I was a Christian, I thought, you know, my grandma or, you know, my people I knew that had died were watching me.

And that was always a little weird to me, especially in some private moments where it was like kind of strange to think somebody was watching me, right? That's not what this verse is saying. And that's not what's actually happening in any of our lives. it's talking about the cloud of witnesses that was described in Hebrews 11. The people who have gone before us and by faith have done all sorts of wonderful things in the name of God And God used their faith And so we given three things to do in this verse Let us also lay aside every weight lay aside our sin, which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance a race that's set before us.

And so the first one is to lay aside every weight, and then closely related to that is lay aside every sin. So in fact, there's only one verb command here, and then there's two objects of that verb that are given. And so it's obvious, I think, to most of us what it means to lay aside every sin which clings so closely. We don't want to live in sin. We don't want to persist in sin.

That actually sends a message to the world that our God can't free us from sin. So one of the worst things that we see, especially we'll say on TV or the Internet, Whatever media you're consuming, it's when you see a very public person that proclaims to be a Christian participating in what everybody knows to be something that's contrary to God's law. It's embarrassing as a Christian to see that.

And I think it causes some people to think, well, maybe that God isn't so powerful anyway. And so we definitely want to lay aside our sin. And to the extent that we can do that, we do. And we trust God by faith to help us. But we also want to lay aside every weight, it says. And I've heard people say, well, that's just another word for sin.

It's just the author is just saying the same thing two different ways. And I'm not convinced that that's what's being said. I'm convinced that he's actually telling us that there's other things that we have to lay aside. Not just our sin, there's other things that actually slow us down in the race we're running toward the celestial city, we'll say. So in this race called life, where we're going to need endurance to run it, where we're going to need to continue to go on and on, just like a foot race, you would put aside all extra weight, right?

You would, I mean, you would try to lose weight, right? Even before you had to go run a race if you needed to. you certainly wouldn't carry your four pound backpack with you when you were about to run and four pounds isn't even a lot we would lay aside every weight before we ran a race that we were trying to win and so we are to lay aside even things maybe that are not wicked, things that are maybe even good gifts from God at times but there may be things in your life that are slowing you down in your race and they may be different from somebody else. Somebody else may, I'll just use an example, we'll take social media.

Somebody else may use social media very effectively and they may use it for good. I have a friend that considers himself an internet evangelist because he's in a wheelchair, he can't get out and do the kinds of things that we do and he spends all week evangelizing people in different forms on the internet. I think it's a good thing he's doing. I know in my case, I end up spending too much time just scrolling and reading the things that other people have said, you know, liking pictures and things of that sort.

And so I actually have to really limit my social media time because of my tendency to waste time on it And so that a weight that I have to lay aside Maybe you can think of something in your life that when you really honest with yourself this is not helping me run my race any better. This is actually slowing me down or causing me to grow tired and weary, and I want to be able to endure to the end of the race. And so we're told to lay aside the weight and the sin which clings closely and run with endurance the race set before us, and then it tells us exactly how to do so.

Because if all I did was read Hebrews 12.1, we could all walk out of here and think, we'll pull up our own bootstraps and by our own strength, we're going to go and do all these things that we're just commanded in God's Word. There's never a time in God's Word where we're commanded to do anything where God's grace is not what's required for us to be able to do it in the first place. You need to remember that. this is what got Augustine in a lot of trouble 1800 years ago or so as he said God you know command what you will but grant what you command something like that I probably quoted him a little wrong but his point was is without God's help he wouldn't do any of it so the author of Hebrews tells us to look to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith as I misspoke earlier but I was quoting another one the author and finisher of our faith I think must be the King James or New King James, where I first heard this verse.

And the author's telling you, hey, while you're laying aside every weight and running this race, you look to Jesus. And it doesn't mean get a picture of Jesus and hang it in your locker at school. It doesn't mean, you know, have a little crucifix on your desk. It's not what it's talking about. It's saying look to Jesus, the person, the person of Jesus and his work, to consider Jesus Christ, to think about him and meditate upon him, not only as the end goal of the race you're running, but as your example of a race well run before you.

And then he tells us exactly that. He says, who? Jesus, for the joy that was set before him. So Jesus, seeing the end of the race and the joy that would come at the end of the race, the crown that you receive at the end of your accomplishment, the medal. even in 2021 my daughter runs cross country they get medals for finishing the race or for being in the top number of the finishers the ones that finish even get told hey good job you finished especially a longer race some of the shorter races you probably don't deserve a medal for but everyone who finishes a marathon is pretty impressive or even a half marathoner in my opinion a 5k that's long distance I know some people that's a walk in the park.

Jesus saw the end of his race as something where joy would be. More joy than would be if he didn't run his race. He understood that. And so he, for that joy that was set before him in Hebrews 12.2, endured the cross. He endured capital punishment, suffering at the hands of wicked men and even being forsaken by his father on the cross and treated as if he had committed all the sins of his people.

Jesus endured the cross. He despised the shame of it This was not something joyful This wasn like hey here like a fun thing you can do and then there more fun at the end This was something that Jesus would have absolutely hated the shame of it Even being thought of as someone who was deserving to be on a cross would have been more shame than Jesus should have ever had to endure. But he despised that shame, but endured the cross, and he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God now.

So Jesus, knowing the joy that would come at the end of the race, endured much affliction and suffering. And the example he gives is the example given to us. That you may be able to endure the suffering that God has appointed for your life as a Christian who's living a godly life. You look to Jesus, who, although he deserved better than you in this life, got worse than you or I will ever get. and his servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted him they're going to persecute us and so keep that in mind as you go through your Christian life and as we've enjoyed I wouldn't say relative, we've enjoyed absolute peace and prosperity as Christians in the United States for a long long time we can thank some extremely godly and prayerful men probably from hundreds of years ago that God is blessing generation after generation because of these guys and these women who were faithful people but there may be suffering and affliction coming to all of us or any one of us in here for your stand for Christ.

Some of you have already endured bits of it, we'll say, from family members and people at your work and things like that. And so always look to Jesus as you run your race and remember that all the things that you're carrying with you in this life you're not going to take with you. it's just going to be you and Jesus on that day and you're not going to need any of the things that we drag along and that we think are important sometimes so as we go to communion consider that Jesus Christ did this for you and my goal in the communion time and I'm about to go down and we'll do the presentation of the elements but the goal of my time in communion often is to remind you not so much that you're such a horrible sinner and Jesus had to die for you and it took the death of the Son of God to forgive you and hopefully you guys know those things and meditate on them and you're confessing your sin even now in your heart to God. But I want to remind you that Jesus really does love you and he died for you.

That's why we have communion as a reminder that he did that willingly for the joy set before him. And part of his joy is that God was calling out a bride for him And we are the bride of Christ, the churches. And so I want you to have great joy as we think about communion. I want you to take it seriously. It should be solemn. But I also want you in your heart to just have joy.

Because the joy of the Lord is your strength. And the only way you're going to run a race set before you, the only way you're going to maybe laugh on your way to persecution someday, or maybe the only way you'll even stand in the face of persecution and not give into it all and deny your Lord, will be that in your heart you are looking forward to the joy that's set before you as well. The perfect joy you'll have when you see him face to face.

And so now I'll come down and we'll present the elements.