The PURSUIT OF HOLINESS Part 3

II} CHRIST:-

HOPE OF OUR FAITH {ENDURANCE}

Heb 12:2

Hebrews 12:2 KJV 1900

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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

a.Looking.

—More precisely “looking off,” “looking away.”

It implies “the concentration of the wandering gaze in a single direction.”

b. Author.—ἀρχηγόν: see Heb 2:10.

Leader, Imitator, Captain, Prince, Bringer-on.

Hebrews 2:10 KJV 1900

10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

He who introduced the new religion.

c. Finisher.—τελειωτήν.

The one who has Himself reached the goal for which we are striving.

There is a guarantee in His having completed the race (1Pe 1:9).

1 Peter 1:9 KJV 1900

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Looking off unto Jesus.—

In the old Grecian games it was necessary to keep the eye of the runner fixed on the goal.

So we must turn our attention from everything else and fix it on Christ, if we would run well the Christian race.

I. Under what apprehensions of Him are we to look to Christ?—

1. As Saviour.

Illustrate by the figures, “Alpha and Omega”; ransom; opened prison; slave given his freedom. The look should be one of gratitude.

2. As Master.

Illustrate by figures, captain leading army; king; Joshua seeing “Captain of host”; St. Paul receiving orders from the glorified Jesus. The look should be one of obedience.

3. Example:

Jesus is the model of a man dwelt in by the Spirit of God. Imitation needs the presence of a model.

II. In what scenes are we to look to Jesus?—

1. Common duty. Christ’s image can be reflected in a little pool even better than in a great lake.

2. Times of temptation.

3. Times of difficulty. Imagine Moses anxiously looking every morning, the first thing, to see whether the pillar-cloud had moved.

4. Means of grace. What is ever brought to mind by the church steeples pointing upwards.

III. What sort of looks should they be?—

1. Trustful. A man on a height looks up, not down.

2. Obedient. The proper spirit of servants.

3. Loving, as to our mother or our dearest friend.

We shall look to Christ the better, the better we come to know Him.

Know Him worthily, and we shall look off to Him altogether.

Looking unto Jesus:

The expression before us is one of the pithy golden sayings which stand out here and there on the face of the New Testament, and demand special attention.

It is like “to me to live is Christ,” “Christ is all and in all,” “Christ who is our life,” “He is our peace,” “I live by the faith of the Son of God.”

To each and all of these sayings one common remark applies.

They contain far more than a careless eye can see on the surface.

But the grand question which rises out of the text is this:

What is that we are to look at in Jesus?

I. First and foremost, if we would look rightly to Jesus, we must look daily at His DEATH, as the only source of inward peace.

We all need peace.

Now there is only one source of peace revealed in Scripture, and that is the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and the atonement which He has made for sin by that vicarious death on the Cross.

To obtain a portion in that great peace, we have only to look by faith to Jesus, as our substitute and Redeemer.

II. In the second place, if we would look rightly to Jesus, we must look daily to His LIFE OF INTERCESSION, in heaven, as our principal provision of strength and help.

While we are fighting Amalek in the valley below, one greater than Moses is holding up His hands for us in heaven, and through His intercession we shall prevail.

III. In the third place, if we would look rightly to Jesus, we must look at His EXAMPLE as our chief standard of holy living.

We must all feel, I suspect, and often feel, how hard it is to regulate our daily lives by mere rules and regulations.

But surely it would cut many a knot and solve many a problem if we could cultivate the habit of studying the daily behaviour of our Lord as recorded in the four Gospels, and striving to shape our own behaviour by its pattern.

We may well be humbled when we think how unlike the best of us are to our example, and what poor blurred copies of His character we show to mankind.

Like careless children at school we are content to copy those around us with all their faults, and do not look constantly at the only faultless copy, the One perfect man in whom even Satan could find nothing.

But one thing at any rate we must all admit.

If Christians during the last nineteen plus centuries had been more like Christ, the Church would certainly have been far more beautiful, and probably have done far more good to the world.

IV. Fourthly, and lastly, if we would look to Jesus rightly, we must look forward to His SECOND ADVENT, AS THE TRUEST FOUNTAIN OF HOPE AND CONSOLATION.

That the early Christians were always looking forward to a second coming of their risen Master, is a fact beyond all controversy.

In all their trials and persecutions, under Roman Emperors and heathen rulers, they cheered one another with the thought that their own King would soon come again, and plead their cause.

It ought to be the consolation of Christians in these latter days as much as it was in primitive times. (Bishop Ryle.)

III] CROSS:-

HISTORY OF FAITH

Completely engulfed in the person of christ

a. Totally ENGULFED in the Person of Christ.

b. Total ENDURANCE of the CROSS and the CONTRADICTION of Sinners.

Word Contradiction :- means Strife, the Conflict, The Disobedience of Sinners , keep this thought in the Mind for now.

Endured the Cross

The Cross carried, and the shame despised by Jesus

I. WHAT WAS THE CROSS WHICH JESUS CHRIST ENDURED?

Was not the whole life of Jesus cross-bearing from the beginning to the end? But there were three things which may emphatically be called the Cross of Christ.

1. His being made sin for us. God did not make Jesus sinful; but God treated Jesus Christ as though He were a sinner. Herein was a Cross.

2. Jesus was wounded by God for transgression, and bruised for iniquity.

3. Jesus Christ’s dying as a notorious malefactor, and thus dying for the ungodly was another part of His Cross.

II. WHAT WAS THE SHAME WHICH HE DESPISED?

This was disgrace, reproach, with the passions and emotions which they are supposed to awaken, and which in all purity and power they did awaken in the human nature of your Saviour.

III. BUT WHAT WAS THE MANNER AND SPIRIT OF HIS ENDURANCE AND OF HIS CONTEMPT?

For this chiefly is the point. Observe, He endured the Cross.

He felt the Cross to be a Cross.

He felt it as a man.

Do not overlook the complete humanity of your Redeemer.

He felt His Cross more than we could have felt it could we have carried it.

Sinfulness blunts the susceptibilities of our nature: purity and holiness keep the pores of the spirit open.

This was the case with Christ.

He endured the Cross in its full weight.

He looked at the Cross as it was presented to Him, and He lifted it, and sustained on His own shoulder its full weight; and I would say to you if you want to get any good out of cross-bearing, always let the full weight of it come upon your shoulder.

I do not say let the full weight of it come upon your shoulder, you being unstrengthened by the Almighty power; but I say, use no artifice to escape the pressure of any trouble that God sends you.

When God sends a trouble to you, let it come down upon you as He sends it, and employ no artifices to reduce its pressure.

Jesus endured the Cross in its full weight, and he endured the Cross to the very end.

He took it up, and to the close of life He carried it; but He endured it courageously, patiently, cheerfully, and effectually.

“Despising the shame.” Jesus felt the shame. Did His cheek never redden, think you, or His lip never quiver when reviled?

Was there no blush upon His cheek when men called Him a Sabbath-breaker, and a blasphemer, and said that He cast out devils by the prince of devils?

Often, doubtless, did that cheek redden and that lip quiver, tie felt the shame: and, mark, to despise being despised is about the hardest thing in life.

Why do you find some sincere Christians continuing in certain ecclesiastical connections into which their convictions would never lead them, and in which their convictions do not keep them?

Because they cannot despise being despised. You may account for the anomalous position of hundreds of Christ’s disciples by this very circumstance—

they have not learned, even from the Great Teacher of this hard lesson, to despise the shame; they have not learned to despise being despised.

The shame was never seen to hinder Christ from saying a true word, or from doing a right thing.

Now all this is the more remarkable because of three circumstances.

First, Christ’s clear foresight of the Cross and of the shame.

He saw both before Him, yet He yielded Himself to endure them.

Secondly, His full appreciation of the Cross and the shame.

And, thirdly, His deep and quick sensitiveness towards all cross-bearing and towards all shame.

Now, bearing these things in mind, Christ’s enduring the Cross and despising the shame becomes exceedingly wonderful as they appear in our Saviour’s life.

Having expounded the text, let us use the truths it contains for practical purposes.

Observe, then, that this text exhibits something done in which you may find rest and peace.

Jesus has endured the Cross; Jesus has despised the shame.

Your cross which you could not endure He has endured; the shame which you never could have borne, and which would have overwhelmed you,

He so bore as to despise it.

And He asks you to believe this, and to act accordingly.

He would not have you go about carrying the cross, say, of your own guilt.

You are not to carry that cross.

You have your cross to carry, but this is not yours.

But, further, the text suggests that there is something yet to be done—a very different thing from the something done; but still there is something to be done.

Every man is called to carry a cross, but not every man the same cross; nor is every shoulder equally sensitive or equally strong.

Troubles vary, and the pressure of the same troubles is different upon different individuals-and you know why.

The reason is to be found in temperament, in disposition, in the state of the body, in the condition of the spirit, in the character, in the pursuits, and in the circumstances of a man.

But we all have our cross and our shame; and I have now to ask you, do we endure the cross? Do we despise the shame? (S. Martin.)

IV] WHAT WAS The Savior's endurance and joy:

There are two ways in which the history of Bible saints ought to stimulate our faith and courage.

This purpose they serve when presented to our minds as examples.

They prove that the truths which the Bible teaches are not airy fancies or musty theories, which cannot be reduced into practice, and shrink from the fiery tests of every-day life.

The force of example is a thought which long ago has been coined into a proverb.

The ancient Romans were accustomed to place the busts of famous ancestors in the vestibules of their houses, in order to remind young people, as they passed to and fro, of the noble deeds of those ancestors, and fire them with the laudable ambition to excel in wisdom, goodness, and valour.

The life of a hero has been known to colour the spirit of an age.

The life of Napoleon Bonaparte has kindled the love of military glory in many a youthful heart; the touching story of Howard’s labours has moved many a man to deeds of charity and kindness.

A. CONSIDER THE SEVERE ORDEAL, THROUGH WHICH HE PASSED.

The atoning sorrows of Christ came from several sources or directions.

1. Strange as it may appear, much of the pain and grief came from human malice and opposition.

I say strange, for one would have concluded that all the sympathy and help of men would most certainly be enlisted on His side, as soon as they were told that to save their souls was His gracious object.

2. Another element in the sufferings of Jesus was the malicious opposition of the devil and his angels.

As a Divine Being, of course these rebellious creatures were subject to His power and could do Him no harm. But in condescending to assume human nature, and undertaking to work out the plan of salvation, Christ voluntarily exposed Himself to the power of these malignant spirits.

3. But the chief source of the Redeemer’s suffering was the wrath of His Father.

As the fire which consumed the sacrifices laid upon Jewish altars came down from heaven, so the holy fire that consumed the sacrifice offered upon the altar of Calvary descended from God the Father.

But although the Father’s wrath was not vindictive in its nature, and rested not on personal but public grounds, it pressed with fearful weight upon the Saviour.

With the smile of His Father shining into His soul, and lighting up therein an abiding summer, Christ could have braved any trial to which He might be summoned without a moan or murmur.

But why those shrinking s in Gethsemane from the task that was assigned Him?

“If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.”

That cup contained ingredients so bitter that none but God could have compounded them.

B. CONSIDER, AGAIN, THE SPIRIT HE DISPLAYED.

It is true He did not covet suffering.

He made no virtue of endurance.

His courage was apparent through the whole course of His public life, but not with such a splendour of manifestation as in His dying hour.

Some plants when pressed display more of their colours, and diffuse more of their fragrance.

The diamond when broken into splinters glitters all the more; and despite the dishonors that gather so thickly around the Cross of Emmanuel, the lustre of His courage burst through the gloom, and shone with unwonted power.

And if you seek the highest pattern of serene patience and fortitude, it is to the sufferer that hangs on the Cross of Calvary we point you.

C. CONSIDER, AGAIN, THE MOTIVE WHICH SUSTAINED HIM.

“Who for the joy that was set before Him.” (J. H. Morgan)

Despising the shame

The shameful Sufferer

D. THE SHAMEFUL SUFFERER.

The text speaks of shame, and therefore before entering upon suffering, allow me to say to say a word or two about the shame.

Perhaps there is nothing which men so much abhor more than shame.

We find that death itself has often been preferable in the minds of men to shame; and even the most wicked and callous-hearted have dreaded the shame and contempt of their fellow-creatures far more than any tortures to which they could have been exposed.

It is well known that criminals and malefactors have often had a greater fear of public contempt than of anything else.

In the Savior's case, shame would be peculiarly shameful; the nobler a man’s nature, the more readily does he perceive the slightest contempt, and the more acutely does he feel it.

The eye that hath faced the sun cannot endure darkness without a tear.

But Christ who was more than noble, matchlessly noble, something more than of a royal race, for Him to be shamed and mocked must have been dreadful indeed.

Besides, some minds are of such a delicate and sensitive disposition that they feel things far more than others.

He loved with all His soul; His strong passionate heart was fixed upon the welfare of the human race; and to be mocked by those for whom He died, to be spit upon by the creatures whom He came to save, to come unto His own, and to find that His own received Him not, but actually cast Him out, this was pain indeed.

1. And behold the Savior's shame in His shameful accusation.

He in whom was no sin, and who had done no ill, was charged with sin of the blackest kind.

He was first arraigned before the Sanhedrin on no less a charge than that of blasphemy.

Could He blaspheme? No.

And it is just because it was so contrary to His character that He felt the accusation.

Nor did this content them.

Having charged Him with breaking the first table, they then charged Him with violating the second: they said He was guilty of sedition; they declared that He was a traitor to the government of Caesar, that He stirred up the people, declaring that He Himself was a king. What would you think, good citizens and good Christians, if you were charged with such a crime as this?

Ah! but your Master had to endure this as well as the other.

He despised the shameful indictments, and was numbered with the transgressors.

2. Christ not only endured shameful accusation, but He endured shameful mocking.

When Christ was taken away to Herod, Herod set Him at nought.

The original word signifies “made nothing” of Him.

It is an amazing thing to find that man should make nothing of the Son of God, who is all in all.

3. He endured a shameful death.

But this is the death of a villain, of a murderer, of an assassin—a death painfully protracted, one which cannot be equalled in all inventions of human cruelty for suffering and ignominy.

Christ Himself endured this.

Remember, too, that in the Avior's case there were special aggravations of this shame.

He had to carry His own Cross; He was crucified, too, at the common place of execution, Calvary, The place of the dung.

He was put to death, too, at a time when Jerusalem was full of people.

It was at the feast of the passover, when the crowd had greatly increased, and when the representatives of all nations would be present to behold the spectacle.

Was ever shame like this?

E. His GLORIOUS MOTIVE. What was that which made Jesus speak like this?—“For the joy that was set before Him.”

F. I WILL TRY AND HOLD THE SAVIOR UP FOR OUR IMITATION.

Christian men! if Christ endured all this merely for the joy of saving you, will you be ashamed of bearing anything for Christ?

Are there any of you who feel that if you follow Christ you must lose by it—lose your station, or lose your reputation?

Will you be laughed at if you leave the world and follow Jesus?

Oh! and will you turn aside because of these little things, when He would not turn aside, though all the world mocked Him, till He could say, “It is finished.” (C. H. Surgeon.)

G.Despise the shame!

Learn the practical wisdom of minimizing the hindrances to your Christian career, pulling them down to their true smallness.

Do not let them come to you and impose upon you with the notion that they are big and formidable.

The most of them are only white sheets, and a rustic boor behind them, like a vulgar ghost.

You go up to them and they will be small immediately!

“Despise the shame! and it disappears.”

And how is that to be done?

In two ways.

a.Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem.

Hold fellowship with God, and live up beside your Master, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable.

b. Another way is—pull up the curtain, and gaze on what is behind it.

The low foot-hills that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from the plain, as long as the snowy summits are wrapped in mist, but when a little puff of wind comes and clears away the fog from the lofty peaks, nobody looks at the little green hills in front.

So the world’s hindrances, and the world’s difficulties and cares, they look very lofty till the cloud lifts.

And when we see the great white summits, everything lower does not seem so very high after all.

Look to Jesus, and that will dwarf the difficulties. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Is set down on the right hand

H. Jesus enthroned

I. Let us look at the fact here presented to us—or at

THE POSITION ASSIGNED TO JESUS CHRIST.

He is said to be seated “at the right hand of the throne of God.”

A place at the right hand of any person in authority and power is employed by the Sacred Writers to represent a position of high honour.

It may be that you have a tendency to look chiefly to the Cross of Christ.

You may be yourselves the children of sorrow, and often in affliction.

Your own cross may be exceedingly heavy; it may tremendously oppress you; and your temperament and your natural disposition combining with your circumstances may lead you to look chiefly at the Cross of Christ.

Believe that your Lord died and was buried; but do not keep your eyes fixed on the Cross and on the sepulchre, for He is not on that Cross anymore

He is not now in that sepulchre.

And you in your thoughts of Christ, and in your feelings about Christ, are not to be merely crucified with Him, and dead with Him, but you must be risen with Christ, your affections being fixed on Christ as above.

He dwells in the midst of the highest manifestations of Deity.

He is worshipped in heaven with God—as God.

His name is associated as no other name with that of Jehovah.He has Divine authority; and He has also Almighty power.

Although distinct from Jehovah, He is and He appears to be one with Jehovah—one as an object of reverence, of fear, and of love—one in His administration of universal government.

Thus is He seated “at the right hand of the throne of God.”

II. NOW SEE THE USE WHICH WE CHRISTIANS ARE TO MAKE OF THE KNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS IS IN THIS POSITION.

1. Here is a fountain of joy from which Christians may drink sacred pleasure.

Jesus is set down at the right hand of the throne of God—

then His work of atonement is finished;

then His sacrifice is accepted;

then His humiliation is terminated;

then His sorrows are for ever fled away.

We joy in this for His own sake.

The Cross of Christ was a real cross to Him.

When He is said to suffer, He did suffer.

His soul was really troubled, and His spirit was exceedingly sorrowful.

And now that He wears a crown, He feels to wear a Crown.

But we may joy in this also for the Church’s sake—for just as Jesus carried the Cross to bless the Church, so does He wear the crown to bless the Church.

And we may joy in the coronation of Jesus for the sake of our individual well-being.

We who trust our Saviour have a personal connection with His Cross; and we have a personal connection with His crown.

And further, we may joy in this fact for the world’s sake. He has ascended on high and received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell among them.

2. But here, too, is a motive to patience, and much help in cherishing patience.

The course of the disciple is in some respects parallel with that of the Master.

Like Christ’s, it is a fixed and definite course.

And it is a course in which there are many hindrances to be laid aside and sorrows to be borne.

But it is a course to which there is an appointed goal, and a course in which the goal as a rule may be seen.

It is a course, further, which makes large demands upon patience.

Hence the injunction “ to run with patience the race which is set before us.”

But now, just see how the position of Jesus bears upon the cultivation of patience.

Jesus is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Once He was running His race on this earth: now He is “set down.”

Now He has no need of patience—He is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.

And if you run, if you wait, if you be patient, you will one day sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is seated on His Father’s throne.

3. And there is just one other thought which we would suggest to you.

No forerunners helped Jesus—not one.

He had not a being to look to who had run in any respect a similar course, and reached His goal—not one.

There was the Father above Him, but the Father had not become man.

He had not been a man of sorrows.

There were angels ministering to Him, but no angels in the skies had attempted to do what Jesus had come to do. (S. Martin.)