199 - How to Run the Race - Part 2 [B]

Hebrews Lesson 199    May 27, 2010

^NKJ Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

If you'll open your Bibles to Hebrews 12, we will begin to go through this passage. Now last time I pointed out that as I started studying this last week that there were some things about this passage that began to sort of impress itself on me in a new way. I think when we read many passages in Scripture (especially those verses that are very familiar and verses perhaps we memorized at times and passages that give us encouragement, give us hope), we often take them at sort of a face value from the English. While we can learn many things and many accurate things when we study the Scripture in English, the Bible was not originally written in English. It was originally written in Hebrew in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. Often when we read anything in translation something somehow gets lost. There is always something that doesn't quite come across; and there are fine points, nuances of grammar and word meanings (word plays, puns, sarcasm, humor) that often get lost in a translation. That is why it's always important to study things in the original language. The more a pastor studies in the original language, the more we study the language the more we learn. It helps us to understand the various things that are going on. 

Now as we were entering into this last time I pointed out that this marks the conclusion to a rather long section that began in chapter 11. Chapter 11 begins the fifth section in the book of Hebrews and begins to lay out some basic teaching in chapter 11 related to faith. What the writer of Hebrews is talking about is faith has to do with a belief that something is true. Now you can't package that. You can't necessarily see it, measure it. You can't quantify faith. I can't look at you and see whether you are believing something or not. Belief itself works itself out though in certain actions. The faith or the beliefs that we have then relate to two things as he says in verse 1 of chapter 11:

^NKJ Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

When we look at what a person is believing and how that affects the way they live, then even though as he's going to argue in that whole chapter of chapter 11, that even though the promise of God was not realized by those Old Testament saints, their belief in the promise of God as being true was never shaken. As a result of that, even though they died before they saw it fulfilled doesn't mean it won't be fulfilled and it is evidence of – their lives are evidence of the reality of what they believed.

Now we went through all of chapter 11 and now we come to this conclusion. The conclusion begins:

^NKJ Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also,

Now the writer having gone through all of these illustrations is now going to apply that to the way we think. 

The first thing that he says is that:

since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

Now the imagery here is the imagery of being in a stadium. He's giving the reason for the challenge, the reason for the basic exhortation that he's going to make at the end of verse 1, which is to "let us run the race that is set before us with endurance." He says that part of the incentive and part of the encouragement that we have, is that we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses – not that they are watching us. This isn't a verse that says that people in heaven are watching us. But it is talking about - and he used the word "witnesses" several times in the previous chapter especially at the end in verse 39.

^KJ Hebrews 11:39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony

Or witness.

through faith, did not receive the promise,

It is their lives (and the knowledge of their lives and their witness) that is what is an incentive to us. It is an example for us to strengthen us so that when we face difficult times and want to give up the Christian life and drop out that we don't do that – that we hang in there and run the race with endurance. We are encouraged by this great cloud of witnesses. The idea that he uses here is (this cloud of witnesses) is a term that is related to the games. 

Here I have a picture from Delphi in Greece, which is where they had one of the Olympic Games. This is a training area where the athletes would train. Now the interesting thing about the ancient Greek games is they trained and did all of their exercising and all of the competition was completely naked. They stripped off all their clothes and did everything in the nude. 

So we actually have a verb that has to do with discipline in the Greek (gumnazo), which basically has that connotation of stripping everything off so you're not hindered. Today we have high tech clothes and all kinds of gear that athletes wear in order to minimize any kind of extra friction with the air – anything that causes them to slow down that will reduce their time, things like that. In the ancient world the only thing they knew they could do was just take everything off so that they would not be hindered by clothes or by tunics or something that would get in the way.

This was the training area at Delphi where the athletes would train and everyday they went through extremely rigorous procedures. If they failed, then that was it. They would not get an opportunity to compete in the games. 

Now this is the racetrack, the stadium there at Delphi. You see you have the stands all on the right. This is what the picture is that somehow the writer of Hebrews is using this as an image that all of those who have gone before us are the ones who are in the stands. We are able to perform in the field of competition because of all that we have learned from those who have gone before us that have surmounted the same challenges, obstacles, difficulties that we face. Because of what they have done, that is a source of strength and encouragement to us that none of us go through life without facing the same basic kinds of problems and difficulties that others have faced before us. We all have to run the race, and we are all eventually judged. 

This is the bema. The bema is a Greek word. Actually it also comes over from a Hebrew word; and it's the judgment seat. So this is the bema. You can see this area of the stands is very different from the other benches in the stands. This is where the judges would sit to judge the contest.

This is a little different shot. This is from the games at Isthmia. These are the starting blocks, starting block area that they set up at Isthmia, and these are the starting-blocks that are still there at Delphi.

So the imagery here for the incentive for the believer is that there have been hundreds and hundreds of believers before us who have trusted in the promise of God. They didn't see the fulfillment in their lives but that doesn't mean it won't be fulfilled. It will be fulfilled yet in the future. As they hung in there and were not defeated by the opposition or by challenges or by difficulties, we can too. They are therefore an encouragement unto us. 

Now when we get into the next part of this verse, this is where we're going to get into some things that are a little bit technical because we have to bring in some Greek grammar because Greek grammar and English grammar are basically not the same. And even though it may translate over in a similar way, the nuances in an English construction are not the same as in a Greek construction. So you can read this in the English and you're going to think it says something that it's not saying.  So let's just run that up here. 

First of all the command is given with reference to the challenge. The main challenge comes at the end in the English

let us run with endurance

Now you're probably scratching your head saying, "Wait a minute. Earlier in the middle of the verse it says, 'Let us lay aside every weight.'" In English the "let us lay aside" and the "let us run" are both expressed in an English first person hortatory command. The trouble is you only have one hortatory command in the Greek; you don't have two. The first word is a participle, and so you shouldn't translate it the same way. We are to run a race. We'll come back to the grammar in a minute. We're running a race.

The word for race here is not the one that we might expect; rather it's the word agon, which indicates a struggle, a contest. Sometimes it's used for a race, but it indicates that there's going to be some challenges, some difficulties to surmount, and we're going to need to make sure that we are focused on the task at hand.

Now the third thing that we see in the verse is how we are able to run the race. So the command is "let us run." As I pointed out last time, in grammar that's called a hortatory subjunctive because we don't have a first person imperative. In the Greek they didn't have a first person imperative either so they used a subjunctive to communicate that idea. 

I illustrated that last time when I played that little clip from Churchill's speech where he concluded the speech by saying, "Let us go forward together with our united strength." Now that was a command to the English people. That wasn't a suggestion that maybe we will and maybe we won't. 

That first person construction "let us" softens it a little bit but nevertheless it's still a strong command. So we have this structure here: "let us aside every burden and run." Some translations repeat the "let us" in both places but it indicates in English that there are two different commands. One is you have to lay aside whatever the hindrance is. You have to lay aside the weight. You have to lay aside the encumbrance. You have to lay aside the burden, whatever it is. You have that lay that aside.

The second thing you have to do is you have to run. However, if you think that those are two commands then you would be definitely wrong. What we have to do is look at the grammar here. This is really a very interesting piece of grammar because it impacts and it's very similar to other verses that are very important and shed light on what's going on in this particular command. 

The verb here for lay aside is the Greek verb apotithemi. This is an aorist participle and when – it's important to note the grammar because a participle really doesn't carry time on its own way. The time comes from the main verb. When you have an aorist participle, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. When it's a present tense it's at the same time as the action of the main verb, and if it's a future tense participle then the action of the participle comes after the action of the main verb. So by the fact that this is an aorist participle what does that tell you? That you have to perform the action of this participle before you perform the action in the main verb. 

The main verb is trecho, which is a present tense verb meaning is basically just a simple verb to run. But the important thing is the grammar. So just on this part of the grammar alone it shows that you have to lay aside before you run. Now when you think about it that makes perfect sense in light of how athletes perform. They would take off all of their clothes before they would walk out and get into the starting blocks. They don't get out into the starting blocks and start running the race and then say, "Wait a minute! I've got too many clothes on," and then start pulling their tunic off and pulling off other parts of their clothing and then somehow get down to the bear necessities half way around the track the first time. They would completely disrobe and take off everything that might hinder them or slow them down before they would even begin the race. That is clear from the grammar here. There's also another aspect of this that's important, so make sure you get the point. In Greek grammar the action of the aorist participle, which is to lay aside, precedes the action of the verb to run. 

Also, this kind of construction, which is called a participle of attended circumstance, is used when the participle is setting up the necessary condition that must be met before the command can be enacted. The way most of us read this is we look at this and read the command "to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us", we immediately interpret that as we have to stop committing certain sins, and we have to start cleaning up our life in the process of running with endurance. That's how we read that on the surface. 

The reason I'm breaking this down grammatically is because if you look at the illustration from racing that doesn't work at all. That's where grace and the joy of the Christian life really come into play. As I pointed out last time, if you take it that way then what you are saying is just a pure works salvation like almost every religious system in the world except for Christianity. Christianity says there is no way you can take all the sin off, all the encumbrances off.  There is no way you can eradicate sin in your life – which is what causes the hindrance between us and God, there is no way you can do that. It is impossible. That is why a substitute was necessary. That is why God had to send Jesus Christ to die on the cross that He paid the penalty of sin so that the burden for sin falls on Him not on us. We simply accept or believe in His death on the cross for our salvation. That is the starting point.

But this isn't written as a gospel tract to unbelievers. This is written to those who are already saved. They are already believers. But after salvation we still sin. We still have the sin nature. We still continue to, sin and we will always continue to sin. There will never be a time when we reach moral perfection.  So how do we deal with it? So if we read this at first glance like most people want to take it, then that would indicate that we have to eradicate sin in our life completely before we can start running the race. That is how the grammar sets it up. But there's no way you or I can ever do that. That is impossible. 

What is the application here? Well, let's look at two other verses in the New Testament that are structured the same way, and we're going to learn that this is expressing a basic principle that we have taught and taught and taught again and again until you are probably sick of it. 

James 1:21 – so if you want to turn there it's just about 4 pages to your right from Hebrews 12. James 1 is another important verse, and the context of James 1 is very similar to the context of Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12:2 is going to say that we need to look unto Jesus.   

^NKJ Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

…two key ideas, joy and endurance. Then later on when we get down into verse 3 we read:

^NKJ Hebrews 12:3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Those are major themes in the epistle of James. James starts off in James 1:2 saying:

^NKJ James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

The focus here is on the real joy and happiness that you have in the Christian life. And this is one of the things that should distinguish Christians from non-Christians, but the trouble is a lot of Christians don't know how to really implement this in their thinking. So they end up hitting difficulties and trials and challenges in life, and they throw the same pity party that unbelievers do. They don't really understand how this is supposed to transform the way they think.

So in verse 2 we have the theme of joy. Then in verse 3 we read:

^NAS James 1:3 knowing that ^athe testing of your ^bfaith produces ^1cendurance.

And it is the same word there. The King James, New King James translates it patience but it is the word hupomone that we have in Hebrews 12. So we have joy. We have endurance there. Then as you read through James, and you come to James 5, he comes back to this theme. You have the same idea – don't grow weary. We see that the same ideas are covered here. 

Now when we look at James 1:21, James says (and he's talking to believers). All through James he's addressing brethren, my brethren, my beloved brethren. It's very clear that James is addressing those who have already trusted in Jesus as their Savior. He is not talking to them about how to be saved. He is talking to them about now that you're saved this is how you have to live your life. This is how you can go forward in the spiritual life. 

^NKJ James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness,

If I were giving you a quiz I would say, "Write down the command in that verse." And you would all write down "lay aside"; and you would be wrong because in the English that looks like a command; but in the Greek that's the same kind of construction we had in Hebrews 12. It's a participle.

^NKJ James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness,

…which is somewhat better than the old King James – "superfluity of naughtiness". 

It really means the excess that sin is in a Christian's life. 

^NKJ James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

So we have two statements here, two key words: "lay aside" which is the participle and "receive" which is the command. So I colored those a little differently so you could see them – the yellow for "lay aside" and the "receive" for the command. What do you notice about that word, "lay aside"? It is the same word that we have over in Hebrews 12:1 – apotithemi, the exact same word. This word means to remove something. For example it was the word you would use if you were going to take your clothes off. It is removing something. So we are to remove sin, just like we take off a shirt and take off our pants to get in the shower – just to strip down. But you and I can't do that. So what is this talking about? It's impossible for this to mean that you have to remove all sin from your life unless you have a really superficial shallow view of sin.

Now some people do. I've had conversations with people who said, "You know, I haven't sinned in about ten years." 

I heard a conversation with a guy who made that statement. All of a sudden he had problems with his computer one day and he got real mad at his computer. Somebody said, "Well wait a minute. I'm just sorry you did that. You just broke your ten-year record."

The guy said, "Well, that wasn't a sin."

He has redefined sin as committing murder or adultery or theft or something like that – one of the big sins. But anger or losing your temper or jealousy or bitterness or resentment, any those things; those aren't sins - arrogance especially! What James is saying the same thing that the writer of Hebrews is saying is that before you can receive with meekness or with humility the implanted Word, you have to first of all take off the sin. So if this means you have to become sinless before you can take in the Word, then you know we can't do that. That's impossible, so it has to refer to something else.

A couple of other things about this passage. You have the same passage, the same structure. You have an aorist participle that precedes the action of the imperative. The aorist imperative emphasizes immediacy. It emphasizes the priority of the command to receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.

Now a lot of people will look at that last phrase and say, "Oh see, he's talking about salvation here."

But that's only because in English and evangelicalism English, in English we have taken the word "saved" to be the umbrella term that refers to what Paul called justification. But the word sozo, which is the Greek word, is a basic word that means to deliver. Sometimes it means to heal. Sometimes it's used in the Scriptures to refer as a synonym for justification. Sometimes it's used as a synonym for the spiritual life.  Sometimes it's used for eventual salvation when we are absent from this body and face-to-face with the Lord. The way James uses the word is to refer to the spiritual life from the time that a person first trusts Jesus as Savior and is justified until the time that they are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. 

Remember this is James 1:21. Just four verses earlier he says:

^NKJ James 1:18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth,

That's regeneration there.

that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

^NKJ James 1:18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

So 1:18 is a reference to their regeneration or justification; 1:21 is talking about now that you have a new life, how are you going to save that life? Often the word that is translated soul there (pseuche) is an idiom for life. So James 1:21 should be translated that we have to receive the Word because the Word becomes the source of truth and power in growing.

This is the same thing Jesus said in His high priestly prayer in John 17 when he was praying to the Father. He said:

^NKJ John 17:17 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

It is the Word of God that is the element that God uses to transform us and to teach us so that we can live in such a way that we're going to honor and glorify Him and that rather than living self destructive lives we will live happy and productive lives, and it's going to be grounded in the truth of His Word. 

So what is James 1 saying? James 1 is saying that the key to the Christian life is learning and applying the Word of God. Now before you can learn the Word of God effectively, you have to lay aside the sin that's there. But that can't mean to stop sinning because otherwise none of us would ever get anywhere because none of us stop sinning. 

Now Peter uses the same kind of construction over in another well known passage in 1 Peter 2:1-2. 

^NKJ 1 Peter 2:1 Therefore,

Now here the English writer (translator) in 1 Peter translates the participle more like a participle instead of a command. He translates it with the "ing".

laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,

^NKJ 1 Peter 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

Now in the first verse we have the word "laying aside." Guess what word that is. Think we've seen it before? Same word! Apotithemi means that something we have to remove something. Here it is malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking. 

Then the command is in the second verse; and that's the word desire. It's the aorist imperative of epipatheo meaning to greatly desire. If some of you have been mothers, you know what it's like when you have a hungry baby. That baby let's you know how it is demanding that you feed it. It starts crying and screaming and yelling. Some of you get that way when you get hungry - even now. 

I don't know if any of you have ever done this, but going on the long fast really has interesting effects on your appetite. I remember years ago now when I graduated from seminary, one of our requirements was we had to take somewhere along the line an extra Christian education elective. I really didn't like most of the electives that they were offering at Dallas, and it was getting close to the end.

"How am I going to squeeze this in? I don't have time in my last semester to take this course. What can I do?"

Then I remembered that there was of course that Wheaton College up in Chicago offered. They had a large camping program in their Christian Ministries Department. They have a huge camping operation up at their main camp up at Honey Rock up in Wisconsin. It was a wilderness leadership seminar. It was like an outward-bound program. You got to go backpacking and canoeing out in the boonies and fishing and whatever for two weeks.

I thought, "Boy, that's a lot better than sitting in a seminary classroom again for another two weeks or a semester."

So I found out that if I took it I could get the credit transferred back and it would count. So I got to get my last two hours of seminary credit by backpacking and canoeing across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They have mosquitoes there that are state birds. These things are huge.

Well, we spent two and a half weeks out; and the last thing that they had the students do is we would come to the shore of Lake Superior. Lake Superior has a mean temperature of 32 ½ degrees so it is just barely above freezing. That's why it doesn't grow any kind of bacteria or anything like that so you can drink the water right out of the lake.  So the last three days of the trip we were on a solo. They would string us out along the beach, and everybody set up their tents. We would get about a hundred yards apart so nobody could see anybody or talk to anybody else. Everybody had a great deal of privacy. We were told to make sure we didn't take – don't try to sneak any food. Don't take a protein bar in your pack. The whole idea is to go for three and a half days with no food. If you have food (you try to sneak it) you've got a big deterrent because there are bears in the woods. The bears will smell whatever you have, and you don't want a wake up at two o'clock in the morning with a bear sticking his nose in your tent and all you have to fight him off with is a tin cup that you're using for drinking water. So most people followed that wise advice and left all of their food back at the base camp. So all our packs with food in it got attacked by the bears back at the base camp! I was 28 years old at the time and thin and ate everything that came in front of me – eat the horse, hooves, hide and all. To go 3 ½ days without food I thought was an impossibility. But the interesting thing was that toward the evening of the second night, I wasn't hungry any more. Your appetite begins to diminish. By the third day your appetite is gone. 

That is why when you read the Scriptures about Jesus and others going forty days without food; you can do that. Your appetite will go away sometime during the second day. About the 38^th or 39^th day (because now it starts to become a little critical for your health), your appetite will come back with a vengeance. But in between you won't have an appetite. You need to drink a lot of water, which we did. But there was no hunger. 

I think this is what happens with a lot of Christians. They are spiritual babies and they don't ever get fed. Nobody ever teaches them the Word. So they're starving to death, but their appetite goes away after a while because there's no one out there to give them anything that's really nourishing. They just don't have much of an appetite. But then somebody comes along and starts feeding them something. Then they start to get hungry because they want to learn the Word. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of people out there who are trying to really substantively teach the Word. 

Now that's what happens also when you go on a fast.  I remember when I came off that fast I had four breakfasts the first morning and none of them were small. I think I had three lunches and then by the time I got back home I think I went out to eat for dinner at 4 o'clock, 7 o'clock and 9 o'clock. You just can't get enough.

The command here in verse 2 is that we are to have a strong desire for the milk of the Word. The focus there is on milk; not in contrast to meat, but on nourishment, because it is the Word of God that nourishes us spiritually and enables us to grow spiritually. But there's a precondition and that precondition is to lay aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking. 

How does that actually happen? Well, I hope I have made it clear by now that we can't think of that as we have to stop committing any and all sins because we can't do that. I'm not saying we have to have a licentious or antinomian view of morality where we can just you know go on and sin and do whatever we want to and not pay attention to a solid system of morals or ethics. But that's not what the writer of Hebrews was getting at here. Again and again you have this. The way that we'll lay aside the sin that's in our life is through confession. We recognize the sin in our life. We go to the Lord. We confess our sin just as David does in Psalm 51. Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 11 when we come to the Lord's Table that were to examine ourselves to make sure that we are ready and prepared to go the Lord's Table. 

1 John obviously talks about it.

^NKJ 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We lay aside the sin that has gathered up. When we confess that sin and it is removed, we are washed clean. It's depicted in the Old Testament in the life of the priest. We've gone over this before. This is the same thing Jesus is talking about in John 13 when he was preparing the disciples prior to observing the last supper, the Passover. 

He washed their feet.

Remember Peter said, "No, no Lord. You're not going to wash my feet."

And the Lord said, "Peter if you don't let Me wash your feet, you'll have no part with Me." 

So Peter then said, "No, wash my whole body."

Jesus responded and said, "No you have all been washed," indicating a full washing, with the Greek word luo. "Except one of you, but I need to wash your feet."

The word for washing the feet is a different word, nipto meaning to just wash a part of the body. Now that was depicted in the Old Testament when the high priest was inaugurated into the priesthood.  He was bathed from head to foot. We studied that. I think it was Tuesday night or no, it was Sunday morning in 2 Kings with the reforms that Hezekiah brought to the Temple. They have to rededicate the Temple, rededicate the priesthood. The high priest was washed from head to toe. But that only occurred once. That is comparable to when a person trusts Christ as their Savior. They are completely forgiven positionally of sin. But we still commit sin. So that has to be dealt with. The same thing with the priest. He is washed but he's still going to do things that get his hands dirty and his feet dirty. So then whenever he would come into the Tabernacle or the Temple the first thing he would do is wash his hands at the laver and wash his feet at the laver. That is a picture and the words that are used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) draw out this contrast using those same two words Jesus used in John 13 - drawing out that distinction between the full positional cleansing and forgiveness that occurs at salvation and then the wonderful fact that we actually are forgiven of sins which brings us great joy knowing that the sin doesn't have to entangle us which is the problem here in Hebrews 12.

The high priest would go through that same thing. So you have these images in the Old Testament, these same lessons are taught by Jesus to His disciples the night before He went to the cross, and then you have numerous passages that reinforce this as we go into and through the New Testament.

Now Hebrews 12 states – we'll read it again.

^NKJ Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, …let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

In other words don't quit just because there's opposition and this was something that was going on in the community that he's writing to is that they are facing tremendous opposition because as Jewish priests who have trusted in Jesus as the Messiah they're coming under a lot of rejection and hostility and they're wanting to just give up and go back into Judaism. But what the writer of Hebrews is saying is you have to run that race that is endurance focused on the ultimate prize, and don't be distracted by the things that are weighing you down. You have to deal with the sin that's in your life. You have to lay that aside. The way you lay it aside is through confession. 

Now does that mean that you confess it and just keep on doing it? No! I'm not saying that. But we're still going to commit sin. The fact that we will is not an excuse; is not designed to excuse it. Confession frees us to recover from failure. It's not an excuse to dwell in failure.

Okay, verse 2. We get the next example of how we do this. Remember we're still talking about how does he say we are to run. First of all we run it by laying aside every weight and the sin that easily encumbers us. I like the way the NET translates that. It translates it:

The sins

It's not like that you're most likely to commit which is how most people understand that. These are the sins that cling to you almost inseparably. That is the idea there because we have sin we're never going to get rid of. We're never going to stop certain things in life because that's just the trend of your sin nature. That doesn't mean you're not going to fight it. That doesn't mean you're not going to give it up. It means that you don't have to always feel defeated by it, and you can have real joy because you have real forgiveness in Christ so you can whenever you fail: "Great! I'm forgiven. Let's move on."

Then you focus on something else. The focus comes in verse 2. 

^NKJ Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus,

Looking unto Jesus is again another participle. And it's a participle of means indicating that we run with endurance by looking unto Jesus. He is the example and so by looking at Him, and it's not just a verb. The verb here isn't just talking about looking at Him with your eyes. It's a verb that indicates mental focus and understanding that we are focused on who Jesus is. We understand who He is. We understand the dynamics of His life, and then we are focusing on that. 

The Greek word is aphorao, which means to look at, to think about, to meditate on. It has a range of meanings. The literal meaning is to look at, but it's used metaphorically in terms of the object of our concentration. So we are to concentrate on Jesus who was then said to be:

the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The words that are used here and I think I have a slide here with these two words for you. The first word that's used here for author is archegos, and it is used to mean prince. It is used to mean leader.  It is used to mean ruler, but it has a very important usage. Just hold your place and turn back to Hebrews 2:10 – Hebrews 2:10. Let's let the author define the use of the word within his own context.

^NKJ Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him,

Him here is referring to the Father. 

for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,

That is, those who are brought to salvation, who are brought to heaven.

to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

That's that word archegos – captain of their salvation. He is the leader. It has the idea of one who is the first in a series. He is the one who is laying down a pattern. Some people translate this "He is the pioneer." He is the pioneer of their salvation. Again the writer of Hebrews doesn't use it as a synonym for justification but for the spiritual life. The parallel here has to do with growing to spiritual maturity, not with justification – being justified before God. 

in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation

That is their spiritual life. 

perfect through sufferings.

Again it's the same root we find in Hebrews 12:2, and that is from the root teleios meaning complete. He's going to make the pioneer of their salvation complete through suffering. So in Hebrews 12:2 we are to focus on Jesus the pioneer and the finisher. That's the word there. The word is teleiotes. It has the idea of someone who brings something to completion, brings something to the finish line. He is the one who sums up our faith. So we focus on Jesus the pioneer and the finisher of our faith the one who is brought to completion our faith. 

^KJ Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him

When we think about what Jesus Christ went through on the cross and all the suffering that He went through before the cross (the beatings, the reviling, the physical abuse, the emotional abuse, verbal abuse), all of that that's going on. He is being ridiculed by the soldiers and beaten unmercifully by the soldiers and whipped by the soldiers. He endures all of that because there's something beyond the cross. There is something He's enduring the cross for, and that is the ultimate joy beyond that which involves both what He would accomplish in bringing salvation to the world and that He would be then promoted to heaven where He would ascend and sit at the right hand of the Father. 

So we look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy (or because of the joy) that was set before Him endured the cross, which is the most shameful death He could have gone through in the culture of that time. The worst form of death (the most shameful form of death) in Jewish culture was crucifixion.

endured the cross, despising the shame,

Now that is a fascinating word there that we have in the English. To despise means to have contempt for. The word was used in Old English as a preposition to express the idea of "in spite of something." We get this from the Old English of the King James.

who for the joy that was set before Him

We can say, despite the shame. The shame and the embarrassment wasn't a factor. He was more focused on the mission than the embarrassment of the cross.

and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So here we have the connection of these two ideas joy and endurance, the same thing we have in James 1.

^NKJ James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

³ Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

 ⁴ But let patience have her perfect work,

So let's plug this in to understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying for us. 

^NKJ Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also,

In light of the fact that there are all of these other believers that we have in history that have set a standard for us and in light of their consistency, let us lay aside all of the baggage, all of the sin that wipes out our spiritual life (the only way we can do that is through the confession of sin), and run with endurance the race set before us. 

The race set before us has to do with living out the spiritual life in obedience to God. We do that by having our focus on Jesus who had to go through a degree of suffering and opposition and hostility far beyond anything we can imagine. Now that may not be our circumstance. We may not be facing a lot of opposition. We may not be facing hostility and rejection from people; but that's what the original audience of the book of Hebrews was facing. They were facing rejection, hostility and the tremendous opposition from friends and family because they were being viewed as traitors to Judaism because they were trusting in Jesus as their Messiah. 

The writer of Hebrews says, "Look at Jesus. We do not suffer. We do not have the rejection. We do not face the hostility that He faced. When you look at everything He endured leading up to the cross and then on the cross when the sin of the world is poured out on Him…" 

Up until that point He had not said one word, not one thing had come from His mouth. Isaiah 53 predicted that the Messiah would be like the lamb before the shearers would be dumb – would not speak, would be mute. This was Jesus until He was on the cross and when the Father imputed the sin of the world to Him and the perfect impeccable sinless Jesus Christ received that imputation of sin that is when He cried out.

^NKJ Mark 15:34 …"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

 The forsaken wasn't that He is rejected by God but that He is judicially separated because at that point as Paul put it:

^NKJ 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

So we can face whatever trials whatever obstacles, whatever opposition we face, and we can have joy in the midst of it, and not running around like some martyr – how horrible life is, how terrible the kids are or whoever it is that's giving us grief, how terrible it is to live in this economy or whatever. We focus. We can have joy because we understand God is in control. 

Now that becomes the basic focus of the next verse – just preview of coming attractions in verse 3. 

^NKJ Hebrews 12:3 For consider

Then again we have this word that indicates mental focus. 

Him

That's the Lord Jesus Christ

who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

^NKJ Hebrews 12:4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

You haven't faced near the opposition yet, therefore how can you give up when you haven't resisted to near the degree of opposition and difficulty that He faced. 

Then we'll get to verse 5. The focus on the next section deals with endurance and deals with moving forward despite the obstacles.

We'll come back next time and advance forward in Hebrews 12 and we'll get a little further down maybe even down to the middle of the chapter as we continue our progression. Let's close in prayer.