Heb 12:1-3 Remembering Our Veterans
REMEMBERING OUR VETERANS
Veterans Day 2007
Hebrews 12:1-3 (11:32-12:3)
Introduction: Today is a day when Americans honor those who have served in the armed forces of this country. As Americans we recognize the spirit of heroism and sacrifice of our military men and women. Beyond that, as Christians we recognize that they are not only national heroes; they are God-given instruments for our protection - the sword that our government "bears not in vain".
As American Christians we have a dual heritage. And as Christians we are exhorted to remember our veterans as well. One of the key factors in the ruin of the Church today, of its transformation into something else, something mutated and twisted and pitiful, is the failure to remember our veterans.
- In our text this morning the Christian life is likened to a race-not a sprint, but an agonizing marathon. And we who run the race are told to look to our veterans, to those who have already finished the race, in order build endurance.
* 12:1-2 are one sentence in Greek. The subject of the sentence is "we" and the verb is "let us run". Run what? The marathon race that is laid out before us
- The subject we is emphatic - WE need to run. Don't worry about other runners-we need to run.
- The verb "run" is the word ???????? - it's an intense word. It means "make rapid movement, run, rush, advance, exert oneself". 1 Cor. 9:24
John MacArthur writes:
"Unfortunately, many people are not even in the race, and many Christians could hardly be described as running the race at all. Some are merely jogging, some are walking slowly, and some are sitting or even lying down. Yet the biblical standard for holy living is a race, not a morning constitutional. Race is the Greek agon, from which we get agony. A race is not a thing of passive luxury, but is demanding, sometimes grueling and agonizing, and requires our utmost in self-discipline, determination, and perseverance." 1
- But it is such a daunting, exhausting race. Some days we feel so tired and the hurdles seem so high. Sometimes we stumble and the pain from the scrapes and bruises is so intense. How can we keep running when we're tired and winded? We remember our veterans.
• v. 1: "Therefore . . ."
- In the context of all that was said so far, logically, consequently . . .
• v. 1: "since we have so great a cloud of witnesses . . ."
- There has been a very wrong idea about the nature of these witnesses circulating in preaching and commentaries. Here's a classic example:
"WHAT an awful sight the rows above rows of spectators must have been to the wrestler who looked up at them from the arena, and saw a mist of white faces and pitiless eyes all directed on himself! How many a poor gladiator turned in his despair from them to the place where purple curtains and flashing axes proclaimed the presence of the emperor, on whose word hung his life, whose will could crown him with a rich reward!
That is the picture which this text brings before our eyes, as the likeness of the Christian life. We are in the arena; the race has to be run, the battle to be fought, All round and high above us, a mist, as it were, of fixed gazers beholds us, and on the throne is the Lord of life, the judge of the strife, whose smile is better than all crowns, whose downward-pointing finger seals our fate. We are compassed with a cloud of witnesses, and we may see Jesus the author and finisher of faith. Both of these facts are alleged here as encouragements to persevering, brave struggle in the Christian life."2
- I'm sorry - how is that encouraging again?
- When you hear the word "witnesses" here, don't think spectators at a game. This is a totally different Greek word. The word for someone watching an event is ??????, from which we get "theater". That word doesn't appear anywhere in the N.T.
- The word here is not ??????; it's ????????. What word does that sound like? What did a martyr do? He testified to the truth of something by his words and life.
* Don't think spectators at a game; think witnesses in a courtroom. That is how the Greek word is used everywhere else in Scripture.
Matt. 18:16
"But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that ??BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY ??FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED."
Rev. 17:6
"And I saw the woman drunk with ??the blood of the ??saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered ??greatly."
Acts 22:20 (Paul, in his testimony, says to God)
"'And ??when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.'"
- The witnesses are not watching us and cheering us on; they are testifying to us by their lives-they are not looking at us; we are looking at them!
- Not only the meaning of the word, but the context of the passage demands this. The witnesses are the people we just read about in chapter 11!
Illus: Let's stick with Paul's use of sports metaphors.
A young college freshman from a small farm town, on a football scholarship, shows up at the big college campus. Everything looks huge. Pretty soon it starts to weigh on him and he starts to think about just how tiny he is and how he practice starts the next week. He starts to convince himself that he is going to get slaughtered, that within a month he's going to be washed out and on a bus back home.
Late one night he's out walking and he passes the athletic building. He notices a single light burning inside, so he tries the door and finds it unlocked. He is alone inside, except for an old janitor mopping the floors. The wise old janitor recognizes the look in the kid's eyes and nods his head toward the glass enclosure next to the kid. Inside are a couple of trophies and behind each one is a photo.
As the kid squints to make out the faces he hears a noise over his shoulder. The janitor has come up behind him. The old man smiles wistfully and begins to tell the boy the story of each of the kids in the picture-how he remembers when they showed up at the school scared and alone. And how this one went on to win state, that one went on to win this tournament and that race. Then the janitor reaches over and turns on all of the lights. The trophy cases go on and on all the way down the hall-hundreds of trophies, with a photo behind each one and the story of a champion in each picture, a champion who started out as a scared freshman just like that kid.
How do you think that freshman felt as he walked out of that building after that? 3
- Hebrews 11 is the trophy room of Christianity; 12:1 is the old janitor pointing to the pictures and saying, "See? You have a whole cloud of people whose lives tell you the race can be run successfully."
- The race is "runnable" and the race is winnable. The lives of all sorts of Christians testify to that fact. The problem is that we don't take time in front of the trophy case anymore!
Rom. 15:4
- When is the last time you read a Christian biography? Shame on us if we know more about which actress is living with whatever actor or what musician is in the paparazzi's eye this week; but have no sense of our own Christian history.
- More importantly, the last time you were tired or discouraged, did you take time in front of the trophy case of Scripture?
- An athlete who wants to focus on his sport spends more time in the gym than he does in the off-campus bar, more time in training than in entertainment.
Andrew Murray wrote:
"A race means . . . concentration of purpose and will, strenuous and determined effort. It means that a man while he is on the course gives himself wholly to one thing, running with all his might. It means that for the time being he forgets everything for the all-absorbing desire, to gain the prize. The Christian course means this all though life: a whole-hearted surrender of oneself, to put aside everything for the sake of God and His favour. The men who enter the course are separated from the crowd of idle spectators: they each of them can say, One thing I do-they run." 4
In 1895 Fanny Crosby wrote:
O happy ones, that sweetly sing,
In yonder world so fair;
Your footprints on the sands of time,
Were left to guide us there.
We follow on with trusting hearts,
For o'er life's troubled way,
The same protecting hand is ours,
That led you, day by day.
We'll follow on, still looking up,
Beyond the ether blue,
Where, by and by, thro' grace divine,
We'll meet and sing with you.
* With our focus restored and our hearts aflame, we hit the training room:
• v. 1: "let us also lay aside every encumbrance . . ."
- The Greek word here means "bulk, weight"; in ancient medicine the word referred to a tumor or mass. In our verse it's in the aorist tense-it's something that was done in the past and is settled: we run "having laid aside every encumbrance".
- This isn't necessarily sin - that's next. This is anything that slows us down. We lay it aside like the Greek athletes laid aside their clothing to run.
Illus: A basketball team warms up in really fancy-looking workout gear. But when it's time to compete, the sweat pants come off because they weigh the player down.
Col. 3:5-10
Matt. 16:24
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and ??take up his cross and follow Me."
Lk. 21:34
"??Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap;"
2 Tim. 2:4
"No soldier in active service ??entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."
1 Cor. 9:27
"but I ??discipline ??my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified."
- In context, their weight was probably the old Jewish legalism: the holidays, the sacrifices, the ordinances and regulations.
Whatever it is that slows down your Christian walk, you need to jettison it.
MacArthur writes:
"Nothing makes less sense than to be in a race that you have little desire to win. Yet I believe the lack of desire to win is a basic problem with many Christians. They are content simply to be saved and to wait to go to heaven."
• v. 1: "and the sin which so easily entangles us . . ."
- We run having taken off the sin (the Greek seems to imply that a specific sin is in view) which encircles us. A couple of possibilities regarding this word "entangles" or "besets" (KJV):
1) The Vulgate translates this, "circumstans nos peccatum" - the sin standing around us. The idea is that a certain sin quickly rushes in to surround us. Suddenly-in an instant-we are surrounded.
2) The Greek word also carries the idea of encircling like a snake, of cleverly encircling and then constricting.
- Either way we recognize that for each of us there are certain sins that, if we aren't careful, can quickly rush in and trap us like a python wrapping us in its coils right before the crushing kill.
- We may be prone to these sins because of a natural disposition, because we indulged in them before we were saved, or because our job or relationships with others exposes us to them. (Barnes)
- We must consciously renounce these sins, we must forsake them, we must consider them vile and alien to us. And we must NEVER flirt with them, never indulge in them "just this once".
- This "laying aside" is a lifelong commitment, because it is a lifelong race. As one commentator put it, "In God's army, we never hear 'at ease'."
* So we run the race "looking" and "laying aside". But we don't just have other human beings for examples.
• v. 2: "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith . . ."
Illus: Back to our college freshman in the athletic building. He's been looking at all these photos of past champions. Before the kid leaves, the janitor takes him by the arm for one last, all-important lesson. He leads the freshman down the hall to a single, solitary trophy case standing all alone. In it is a large portrait of an old man, done in oils. Below the portrait is a series of pictures of the man as a young, strapping athlete in turn-of-the-century athletic gear. Without a word, the janitor points to a small, brass plaque under the pictures. And the name on the plaque is the name on the outside of the building. THAT is Hebrews 12:2-3. 5
- We run the way they ran in Hebrews 11: "looking unto Jesus". We run in and by FAITH, not human effort or self-reliance.
- This is not just a casual glance. The Greek word ????????? means, "looking away from all else at". Lk. 9:59-62
* We need to be focused on Jesus to the exclusion of all else, including even our self.
- There is another way we can be too preoccupied with self (besides selfishness). We can be so focused on the mechanics of running that we lose sight of the goal-the technique becomes an end in itself rather than a means to the end.
- OR we can be too focused on the techniques of others-either trying to run like they do OR trying to convince them to run like we do. Rom. 14:1-4
Phil. 3:12-14
* We focus on Jesus. We look to Him as both a pattern and a help, as both the source and the example of faith. Phil. 4:13
1 Thess. 5:23-24
"Now ??may the God of peace ??Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your ??spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, ??without blame at ??the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 ??Faithful is He who ??calls you, and He also will bring it to pass."
* Jesus is presented here as an example of faith. If you have a King James, you're used to seeing "the author and finisher of our faith". Notice the italics. There is no possessive in Greek-He is the author and finisher of faith.
- He is the "author" - the ??????? - the founder, pioneer, the chief example, of faith; and He is the "finisher" - the One who brings it to perfection.
- Jesus did not come to Earth merely to live a perfect life as an example to us; but in living a perfect life He was an example. Among other things, He was an example of faith.
• v. 2: "Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame . . ."
- There is a word that keeps popping up. It may not be as obvious in English: '??????? - endurance. Verse 1 says, "let us run with endurance . . . looking unto Jesus . . . who for the joy set before Him endured the cross"
- We can endure by faith because Jesus, the God-man, endured by faith. He kept His eyes on the joy set before Him.
* The "joy set before Him" was not heaven. His joy-and ours-is glorifying the Father.
* The race is not simply a race to get through this life without blowing it. The overarching theme of Hebrews is moving forward from immaturity to maturity in the Christian life. Remember this: this is not a race from birth to death; it's a race from immaturity to Christlikeness.
• v. 2: "and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
- This is a reference to Ps. 110:1. Jesus ran His race and finished having obtained the prize. Luke 24:25-27
• v. 3: "For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
- Jesus is the ultimate example of enduring. The word appears again in this verse. Matthew Poole, Spurgeon's commentator of choice, wrote:
"None was ever so scorned, taunted, blasphemed, spit on, and ignominiously treated like Him; and never any so invincibly endured it."
* It is so important that we look to Jesus for encouragement in the race. The term for losing heart here also appears in James 5:15. This sort of discouragement can lead to sin.
Conclusion: The Christian life is a race. Our goal-and our prize-is the Christlike life that glorifies God. We run that race by faith. And when our faith is shaken or injured, we look to those who have finished the race, and won the prize, for encouragement. And we keep on running.
After World War I, Lt. Col. John McCrae, a doctor in the Canadian army, was walking through a graveyard, observing the crosses that marked the graves of the fallen. As he surveyed the scene he wrote an immortal poem:
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
1 John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentaries: Hebrews, p. 372-3
2Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of the Holy Scripture (2 COR - REV) (Joseph Kreifels), Heb 12:1-2.
3Kenneth McCaulley, Illustrations of Kenneth McCaulley (2007).
4Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All (Joseph Kreifels), Heb 12:1.
5Kenneth McCaulley, Illustrations of Kenneth McCaulley (2007).
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