12 1 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 that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
We’re continuing with our study of the book of Hebrews…(17 wks) a book that brings out the theme of Christ’s supremacy over all things…in the opening chapters of the book the author sets out to prove that Jesus is superior to:
the prophets (Heb. 1:1–2),
the angels (1:5–14),
Moses (3:1–19),
the priests (4:14–5:10; 7:23–28),
and all previous sacrifices (9:11–14; 10:19).
Thus far much of what we have been dealing with in these messages is doctrine concerning prophecy and fulfillment…Bible history…along with concepts like the priesthood…the atonement…and the Covenant.
As we come to the last two chapters of the book the emphasis is now less on doctrine and more on practical applications…telling us how to live for Christ and obey Him…Up to now we have looked at some rather troubling verses that reveal the harsh reality of living a lackadaisical Christian life.
Hear people say…I know John 3:16…or Ephesians 2:8…that’s all I need to know…if you’re banking on those verses alone for your salvation…you might be disappointed…I’m not suggesting a salvation that relies on human works…but because we have Americanized the Bible so much we overlook the importance of obedience…this goes clear back to Hebrews 2:1…we talked about weeks if not months ago:
we must listen very carefully (must pay the most careful attention NIV) to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.
Sometimes there’s the temptation to coast in our Christian walk…to backslide or to just not take Scripture seriously…it’s not to deliberately commit sin but to just step back for a while and take it easy.
I sit on a bar stool smoking a cigar and watch people around me who are completely detached from the reality that awaits them…people who no more think about eternity than they do about tomorrow…lacking any conscious awareness regarding their eternal future…it’s heart breaking.
The book of Hebrews repeatedly warns us of the danger of such thinking.
2:3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?
3:11 they will never enter into My rest.
3:19 they could not enter in because of unbelief.
5:11 you have become dull of hearing
6:4 to have fallen away it is impossible to renew again to repentance
11:39 none of them received what had been promised
8:8 but God found fault with the people
All these verses share the unpleasantness of what might happen…that despite what everyone would like to think…there is the real possibility that many people who think they are secure in the Lord are really not.
Chapter 12 [1 & 2] are actually a continuation of chapter 11 [39 & 40] …again the chapter break implies a new thought but it’s actually a continuation of what he has been referring to throughout the eleventh chapter…providing an application of the points made in those verses.
The first word in chapter 12 ‘therefore’ should be the indication that what he is about to share is a culmination of all he said in chapter 11.
In the opening verse of chapter 12 is a very confusing phrase…he makes an unusual statement that is really found nowhere else in the New Testament…he seems to indicate we are being watched.
12 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
Who is the great cloud of witnesses…the author seems to be implying that those previously mentioned champions of faith from chapter 11 are now spectators…that the possibility exists they are cheering us on as if we were in some kind of athletic competition.
TWO words that need defining:
Does their ‘witnessing’ refer to their watching us from heaven…or does it refer to their witnessing to us by the way they lived their lives?
The word ‘witnesses’ can mean the act of seeing something as a result of someone’s actions…or a testimony which is the result of someone’s actions.
Based on Hebrews 11 it seems as though the word ‘witnesses’ is used as a testimony…the result of those Old Testament saints who were examples of faith while on earth and are in essence saying… “By faith I finished, you can too!” so the meaning is they are giving us a testimony by how they lived their lives that should be an encouragement for us rather than actually watching us.
However, the second word ‘cloud’ sheds a different light on what appears to be more than a simple reference to clouds in the sky.
The world ‘cloud’ (νέφος) used here is a neuter noun that is only used one time in the entire N. T. …and it means a dense crowd…a multitude …a great company, which would seem to agree with the idea that we are being watched.
So, it is possible the ‘witnesses’ of Hebrews 11 is referring to those who have run the race…and who have now gathered, as it were, along the race route to encourage us…watching us as we live out our lives.
Now the common objection to that thinking is why…why would you want to continue to see the ugly disgusting things of this world after you die…you lived your whole life in it…why would you want to continue to see it?
It’s hard to think that those who are in Paradise who are happy and untroubled would want to see what’s happening on the earth…can we with confidence say that people in Paradise are actually observing us?
Everyone on this planet has a worldview that influences—how we interpret our circumstances / surroundings …it impacts the way we value other people…the way we choose to make use of the time we’ve been blessed with.
At one time in our lives, we all lived in ignorance…the ignorance that is the result of not knowing who God is…we were ignorant of some of the deepest realities that we’re surrounded with all the time…living in ignorance to who we were created to be…we lived in ignorance about the purpose of our existence… we lived in ignorance regarding everything relating to God’s divine plan.
But God was gracious and kind enough to offer us the privilege to begin to see things in a new light…through faith in Jesus our eyes were opened to understand …the mark of a Christian… having an understanding of the deepest realities that we’re surrounded with…regarding things that we didn’t have the capacity to gain a full understanding of through natural means.
Jesus enables us to see things differently, and as He does so, the manner in which we choose to live our lives will be impacted as well.
Through faith in Jesus we have been enabled to see things differently…we can view the time we’ve been given on earth from a new perspective…said it earlier I am amazed how people live their daily lives with absolutely no thought as to what will occur after their earthly life is over.
Through faith in Jesus we can adopt His manner of seeing things as our manner of living.
Let me say this…in the next life if it is possible to ‘see’ things on earth… we will see them different than we do now and have seen them in this life.
If it is possible…that God grants saints to see the suffering and misery as well as the good on the earth:
…they will not see it with their old imperfect eyes
…they will not understand it with their old imperfect minds
…and they will not assess it with their old imperfect hearts.
…even the relationship between a husband and wife will be completely different than what it has been on earth.
Rather they will see…understand…and assess all things in a perfectly spiritual way that takes into account the goodness and wisdom of God in what they see.
Probable the best way to illustrate this is in Hebrews 11:4…where the writer says Abel “Through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.” …so is Abel in the cloud of witnesses who is encouraging us on…or is he speaking to us by the witness of his life through Scriptures?
To tie the possibility of us being watched as we venture through life, the author depicts us as an athlete about to compete in a race…he compares our time on earth as a runner preparing to race…like an athlete he emphasizes the importance of persevering to the end.
The point the author is making is that these men and women did accomplish great things despite the fact that they were at times less than people of faith… Moses was a murderer…Paul was a murderer…David was a murderer and an adulterer…Abraham a liar…Rahab a prostitute…Sarah a doubter.
BUT…because of their faith God took normal people and did much through them …this is not a list of perfect people…it’s not a list of heroes…Hebrews 11 is a list of fallen sinners who put their trust in God and watched God do amazing things through them.
The idea is not so much that this great cloud of witnesses is in the stands cheering us on, but rather that their lives testify to us…we walk down the same path…live in the same fallen world…share the same sinful tendencies…run the same race that they ran.
The reality is that men and women have been running this same race for thousands of years…we can look back to the Old Testament or we only need to look back as far as friends and family who have finished their race in life… and look to them for encouragement.
I’m not really sure I want thousands of people who have gone before me seeing me as I struggle though this life…but I’m not prepared to say it’s not possible because this Scripture suggests differently…the argument goes both ways.
This brings us to the second half of verse 1…the writer turns his attention to those who are now running the race…giving us instruction regarding our participation…the second half of verse 1:
Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us
As in most races…participants are called to the line to start the race…most lay aside the things not needed to run the race…or they will shed them during the race because they need to rid things that prevent them from running well…as Christians there are things we need to shed:
Things that distract
Lay aside every encumbrance…The word we translate as encumbrance (περίκειμαι) means anything I am in submission to…not necessarily referring to sins but things that distract.
In the Christian life there are things that we are in submission to…that distract us…while not being necessarily sinful in themselves there are things that can slow us down if not kept in their proper place.
Family…friends…hobbies…social media…our phones…sports…working overtime…whatever it is that distracts you…that takes up your time…not wrong in themselves…but can tend to weigh you down.
These are the things that we can get so easily absorbed in…sometimes you look around a room and everyone is on their device…you wake up in the morning and instead of going to Scripture or prayer, you do the morning routine of… news…emails…answering work texts from the night before…or social media.
Encumbrances that are not sinful in themselves, but they slow you down and keep you from running all out for Christ.
The challenge is to consider what are the things in your life that easily distract you…that slow you down in the race to finish strong.
But then he also gets a little more personal…he includes the sin which so easily entangles us.
Now he’s making me feel a little more uncomfortable than I like…the word we translate as ‘easily entangles’ (εὐπερίστατος) is one word and is closely connected to the word encumbrance.
It’s referring to something that easily surrounds us…encircles us…or causes us to be easily distracted…again…anything that hinders.
But in this case…it’s a little more involved than that…more serious and far more complex…he’s referring to:
Things that destroy
Too often the things that distract us are the gateway to things that will destroy us.
The author not only warns us about encumbrances…but also the sin which so easily entangles us.
According to this text sin entangles us–that is to say, it exerts tight control over us and can easily trip us up…encircles us…traps us…and causes us to forget that we are even in a race.
That’s how much of an influence sin can have on our lives.
In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray for God not to ‘Lead us not into temptation but todeliver us from evil’ …a very confusing verse… asking God to not lead me into temptation…doesn’t that go against everything we understand about God…in fact…James says just the opposite: [Jas. 1:13].
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God.” For God cannot be tempted by evils, and He Himself tempts no one.
So why am I praying that God doesn’t lead me into temptation? …don’t know about you all…but I don’t need anyone to lead me into temptation… I can find it just fine on my own.
Jesus tells us to pray to the Father to not lead us into temptation…Scripture clearly tells us that God will not tempt us to sin …so why do we need to ask God to refrain from doing something He wouldn’t do anyway?
If Jesus knows sin destroys our fellowship with God why do we need to pray that God will not lead us into situations that will damage that fellowship?
Look at it this way…the Lord sees situations in our future where we can fall into temptation…Jesus gave His disciples the same advice regarding temptations “pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Matt. 26:41).
Jesus is addressing the idea that everyone has different tolerance levels regarding temptation and sin…some are stronger in overcoming certain temptations…others are weak and are more easily overcome by sin.
Praying for God to “lead us not into temptation” means asking Him to guide our steps in such a way where we avoid the people and places that can tempt us to sin…it is then left up to our free will to continue on or not.
It’s asking God to keep us out of situations where we might become weak and vulnerable…and fall into sin.
We have a responsibility to not allow ourselves to be in a situation where we can be tempted to sin… ‘Lord I’m just weak in that area and I just fall into sin when I’m exposed to that situation’ is not an excuse.
As Christians stay away from things that distract and destroy your fellowship with God.
While I’m on it…let me just say something about the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer…the request is that God would “deliver us from evil” [Matt. 6:13]
Again…that really makes no sense…what is evil…that is why this phrase is translated differently in different versions…KJV, ESV, and NASB translate it as “evil,” while the NIV and NKJV translate it “the evil one.”
In the Greek there is a definite article before the word evil indicating the term is specific… ‘the evil one’ it is a reference to the devil…that is the more correct translation… ‘the evil one’ also makes more sense.
The author concludes by telling us to:
2 look to the founder and perfecter of our faith
Two important words in this phrase
…First is the word ‘looking’ (ἀφοράω) …some translations use the word ‘fix’ in order to give a more definite meaning to the phrase…this word is only used twice in the entire New Testament.
The Greek word for ‘looking’ is a much fuller word than we can find in English …it’s a compound word that has a preposition (ἀφο) that means ‘away from’ or to look away from everything else except Jesus.
…Second word is the word perfecter (τελειωτής) …a word that is used only one time in the entire New Testament.
It is specifically referring to Jesus…the one who brings the life of faith to its completed conclusion…as Christians this is who we should be fixing our eyes on…not looking away to anything or anyone else.
Hebrews 12:1-2 is one of the most descriptive verses regarding living a Christian life.
As we run the race of life, we must run with our eyes focused on Christ…as we run the race of faith, we must resist those intrusions in life that distract and destroy our fellowship with God.
Researchers in the departments of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona developed a mathematical model of cellular competition in humans and have one simple conclusion: You can’t beat death.
Have you driven by a cemetery…went to a funeral…that’s your conclusion… obviously a research that was funded by American taxpayers.
All of us are going to cross the finish line of death…death is inevitable…if you don’t believe me just ask the folks in the departments of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona…we have no control over death.
I guess that’s the part that is most depressing to me…not death…it’s the completely detached reality of people who are lacking any conscious awareness regarding their eternal future.
The finish line for the Christian is Christlikeness…that should be our ultimate goal… growing and maturing on the racecourse of life to look and act like Jesus …then ultimately to cross the finish line of eternity.
What we can control is how we cross the finish line…as we leave here this morning let us think about the importance of run(ning) with perseverance the race that is set before us.