hello everyone and welcome to class 10 of the book of hebrews um as we get started today let's pray and devote this time to the lord opening our hearts and our minds to hear from his spirit and have his word embedded in us father we thank you for this time together we thank you for your word we thank you for your holy spirit the great teacher who abides within us to reveal truth to us lord as we open our hearts and our minds putting aside our own opinions and allowing your opinions to become ours we thank you that this will cause us to walk according to your plan and your purpose as we reach out to a world who needs to know who you are we thank you for this father and for the privilege of serving you in jesus name amen amen all right so we are on chapter 12. uh we talked about the um chapter 11 last week and and talked about some of the different people uh that that the hebrews would have known who they were and would have known what their testimony we'll talk a little bit about that obviously in the 12th chapter here knowing their testimonies knowing what they represented to the jewish people knowing of their faith and the outcome and that they were all moving in this direction and the encouragement of the writer for these people at this time amidst this persecution to move in line with this and believe christ as messiah and to move on in that relationship with god that faith receiving okay so let's pick it up here at chapter 12 verse one wherefore seeing we are also composed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us all right let's just stop here once talks about cloud here this word for cloud is a great massive cloud it's not like the puffy little guys that sometimes are in the sky but a cloud that is massive and that covers basically all of the visible space that you see when we would what we might call overcast where it basically covers all of what you can see of the sky that is the cloud that it's talking about not having a definite form but just being completely covering over the sky that's what it's talking about outlines not being emphasized or distinguished just that massive covering um so what are we talking about here so this is a great cloud this is so many people that it's almost unimportant who the individuals are i mean even as we talked about at the end of chapter 11. um time is we don't have the time to discuss all of the people all over this over the period of the ages who um who quenched fiery darts who gave their lives who were tortured who this and who that we there are a few highlighted here most familiar again the writer using names most familiar to the hearer most standing out so to speak the most stand out names to the heroes so that they could identify with these people who they already are identifying with they didn't know everyone but they knew these people so these names in addition to all of the others were not only going to focus here okay in a sense on the names that we've named but on all of them because we don't have the time to talk about all of these people who exercise their faith in their god and we want to we want you to do the same or i will the writer's saying i want you to do the same thing this is what we're putting out there for you all of these people name names you know names you don't know all stood believing and we want you to understand that and to hear what they have to say so to speak look at their actions look at the actions of these people and consider it and consider it okay so this great cloud of witnesses let's let's let's talk about let's talk about what is meant here also with this concept of the witness um these are this word does not include um the person who is looking at or witnessing something i know sometimes um when these scriptures are preached there's certain poetic license that can be taken that doesn't affect the overall meaning so much but there's the idea often conveyed that all of these people are kind of like watching us and encouraging us and well there's there's a bit of a drama or a dramatic aspect to that but what we're talking about here more is these are people who testify to what their faith has brought in their lives and as a part of the plan of god in other words we go back to something i know i've talked about in other classes before the witness who provides evidence okay these are those who provide evidence of the faithfulness of god these are the ones that we look at and we look to to confirm the fact that what god has spoken he is able to perform willing to perform and is performing he is in fact watching over his word to make sure that it comes to pass okay we kind of talked about that a little bit when we when we uh discussed the aspect of testament and will and the fact that the testator the person writing the will when they pass when they die then the will comes into effect but jesus comes back to make sure that the will is enforced the way he wants it enforced so this is a complete situation here he's covered every base so these witnesses are providing evidence of the faithfulness of god they are providing evidence of faith towards salvation and victory they are providing evidence and as it says not even having received the promise right there at the end of chapter 11 in verses 39 and 40. they didn't even receive it but the fact that they did it without receiving it shows even more that faithfulness of god as we discussed it also in the last class joseph saying talk to you about you know the old man almost like seeing that bony fingers take me with you having such faith to believe that what god had spoken so many years ago was going to happen that they were going to come out remember spoken of to abram and abe to abraham okay abram who becomes abraham that you know there will be this this this period of time but i will bring out the people this is what was said they knew this from scripture that god once god warned about captivity he said change your ways change your ways you know because this is what's coming once they were in captivity again you probably you should have taken old testament prophets as well the timeline of of how the prophet would speak once they were in captivity what was the prophet talking about talking about okay i'm going to that god was saying the prophet speaking for god would be saying i will bring you out and it will be this way and i will you will be my people and i will be your god so he's always moving them forward that promise and has and was and still is always faithful to his word to bring it to pass so here we have this cloud of witnesses and their testimonies provide evidence a witness provides evidence if i look at abram abraham i see evidence of the faithfulness of god if i see joseph i see the faithfulness of god if i look at hannah i see the faithfulness of god if i see rahab i see the faithfulness of god with each of the names that are represented there in chapter 11 i see the faithfulness of god there is a testimony a providing of evidence that god is faithful to his word and brings it to pass and these are the things that we really have to pay attention to because we can get caught up in so many other things and and in splitting hairs and and in verifying our own doctrine so i'm going to get a little bit on a soap box here but some of the ways that the book of hebrews has been approached was more to prove a particular doctrinal stand as rather than appreciated for the truth that it is given remember we discussed this in the beginning this is a book where the authorship was not confirmed that was the that was a primary a primary contingency or a requirement i should say for a book to be included in the canon and even still with not having that confirmation this book because of the value of the information the value and the substance that's contained in it was included in what we now know as our bible so we need to look at the important things that god is trying to say instead of looking at what we're trying to prove of what we think god might be saying take it for face value what he's saying let's not complicated and i really want to get that across to you you are people you're taking this class you are leaders or you will be leaders your teachers or will be teachers you're sharing the word on some level at any rate let's make sure we keep the most important things as the most important things the encouragement here let's let's go back and keep revisiting you always need to revisit where you started to make sure you're not off track okay this book was to encourage this letter was to encourage people under persecution not to forsake the track that they were on towards that full conversion toward christ as messiah to fully believe fully embrace and fully step into this new covenant this is what this is about not looking for ways to exclude people or divide between or you are and you aren't which is what again the book of hebrews is often used for let's not allow that to happen we can change how we present this to people we can present it in that truth inclusive stay in there hang in there here's the cloud of witnesses here's the proof hang in there because regardless of what it looks like this is truth that you need to be walking in and if you do you will receive the promise you will receive the promise okay not why you get on a soapbox but it's so important that we understand and take it from god's point of view what is his heart in what he's communicating what do we keep seeing over and over again the same theme hang in there don't give up he's faithful here's the proof be encouraged stand firm he's the same god yesterday today and forever this is the one who we need to look toward all right so seeing we going back to verse one here uh just to repeat it for a second we're forcing we are accomplished about surrounded with so great cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us okay so now we're looking at these people they are the proof they convince us we look at them they're not looking at us they're not standing up there you know watching us run our race we're supposed they're not like the audience okay in a stadium they are the proof they are the guys with the with the trophies in the cabinets they're the witnesses they're the ones we're supposed to look at for that testimony okay um so um so again they're not spectators their testimonies are examples of their faith the faith toward messiah and what they were waiting for that messiah was high priests and that was what they were coming toward um when we talk about um they're also exhorted here using the the illusion of uh the training period of time a preparation time for uh running a race or or some competition which in which the flesh is uh trained shall i say to produce laying aside every weight and the sin which so so easily beset us when it when an athlete is training for a competition okay there are many things that happen all right first initially it is it is most more often than not connected to weight loss okay if the person's out of shape they're going to lose weight they're going to tone muscle they are going to do things that rid them of any what we would call excess baggage it would rid them of anything that would prevent them from their actual optimal performance because so what does an athlete look toward and again you know the examples used at this day these were were common concepts and ideas everyone knew about the games everyone knew about these competitions it was a part of their lifestyle all right so to use these examples would be something that people would pick up on immediately right so laying aside every weight that anything that would hinder me um if you look at athletes many times they wear the least restrictive garments uh carrying the least amount of weight you know things like that again like i said before toning the muscles and for uh as believers the christian is going to look at removal of even the most innocent things that may simply be a drab on their walk with god or their ability to move as far forward as god would want them to you know there are things that i just don't do because and this isn't about i'm better than you or this person's better because they do this but there are certain things that are not good for me and my walk with god it may be fine for you but it's not for me so i stay away from those things because those things tend to maybe make me a little bit sluggish maybe make me a little bit less likely to go the extra mile when i do need to go the extra mile whatever that is okay we all have those things so when an athlete is getting ready to enter a competition they already know what what their regiment is they know what foods they need to eat they know what things they need to do and to not do not stay up late and and watch tv they need to get more sleep they need to not be eating these kinds of foods they need to be eating these kinds of foods so there's things that there are certain things in our lives that become just a little bit of a pullback on our ability to move forward okay and those are things that are individual for each one the athlete determines and knows what those are just like we know what those things are in our own lives whether it's chocolate cake too much tv too much time down at the at the shore at the beach and none of these things are bad in and of themselves unless they become excessive in our lives and then begin to take the place of the things that help to build our character build our relationship with god so everything in moderation paul talks a lot about that temperance moderation nothing wrong with this as long as you begin to when you're in that place okay of moving forward in that spiritual place and for these individuals just let's let's move away from things that might hinder us and even more importantly won't help us for a runner more weight on their body won't help them so you see they wear clothing that is the least restrictive in terms of of uh you know maybe getting tangled up in it or whatever but also weight wise that they're carrying as little extra weight as possible their shoes the socks whatever what they put on their feet the shirts the shorts everything whatever would put more weight on their bodies they get rid of it because now as they begin to run they want as much freedom as little that little as little as possible to create drag on them all right so getting rid of anything that doesn't help because what doesn't help will hinder in the long run um and here's another thing it's only by actually participating in the sport that you know what those things are as an athlete and as a christian it's the same thing as we begin to move in our walk with god we will start to see the things that need to be put aside okay and it's not so much a religious thing okay where's like thou shalt and thou shalt not thou shalt not thou shalt not if it doesn't help me i want to put it aside because i want to continually be doing the things that help me be better at who i am and what i do people who go to school uh if someone's going to be a lawyer or a doctor and they want to be good at their profession any profession or are going through training while you're being trained you devote your energy your time and your attention to that thing pushing aside other things so that you can focus and be the best at what you're doing that you possibly can sometimes we don't even again realize what are the things that are hindering me again as an athlete the the examples used at the time because so common uh to the everyday person if i am a runner i may i may begin to realize that certain types of food aren't giving me the energy and the muscle building that i need so i need to switch i may need to take certain vitamins making sure that i've had enough fluids and the right kinds of fluids i begin to learn to what to add to my body and not add to my body see when you're doing the right thing you can't be doing the wrong thing so again learning as we begin to move the athlete begins to learn what are the best things for them to do in order to be the best that they can be and in doing that they learn the things that are not adding to their performance so they get rid of anything that might be burdensome or hampering when we talk about the sin that does so easily beset us um basically it speaks of a sin which is really easily kind of encircles let's say the runner the christian runner the person who is running their race their christian race um clothing like i said before you don't want to have long loose robes while you're running and then you could get tangled up in it you're going to get rid of that you're going to get rid of like in that day that's what they wore you wouldn't wear a ski outfit to run a race obviously good for certain sports but not for all so you get rid of anything the sin may be any um evil or even what we don't we might not even perceive it as so evil uh propensity or or tendency toward it might not appear so evil but it may be a hindrance the context here suggests the sin of unbelief because this is what they were dealing with at the time remember the letter was written to these hebrews who are in the throes here of this persecution and teetering on that unbelief so the idea conveyed the context suggests it is the sin of unbelief that is keeping these people from making that decision to fully put their faith in messiah or hold on to that faith to come completely through that conversion process having received messiah as their high priest okay and moving in that full direction and i am using my words carefully here because as we discussed the two schools of thought well they're not saved if they don't come all the way through or no you can lose that salvation we're going to pull this toward the middle we are going to approach every person as the one that god wants saved all right we're not going to take these schools of thought to their to their extremes to exclude we are looking to include and draw people in so encouraging people in their faith any everyone inc including whoever you come across to be that witness to them to provide that evidence for them so that they can see this life in christ so that's that's what we want to be able to um project toward people so that they here going back to this first verse the sin which does so easily beset us so we're going to look at that as as per the context the sin that of unbelief not being able not being willing because remember willingness is something that we keep seeing too come up it's a choice make the choice hold fast don't let it slip away the language that puts the responsibility on the individual person to hold on to the truth that has been presented to them in such a way that they can and should understand and then therefore embrace this messiah as high priest and let us run with patience the race that is set before us now when we talk about patience there's both a passive endurance endurance okay and there is also an active persistence that is um that is conveyed in this idea of patience and i think we've talked about this before but just to reiterate patience is not that just well i'll just sit around here and wait until it shows up and you know where what time is it they hear ya patience says i don't care what happens well they're not coming i don't care what you say they're coming it's go he will fulfill his word but look at the circumstance i don't care what the circumcision says god will fulfill his word and i'm not talking about the stance that says um i i think god's gonna fulfill his word i hope and hope you hope god will fulfill his word no patience is a confident expectation not an agitated one not one in fear and dread not one in anxiety and nail-biting patience says i am waiting for god's timing and i believe now a little secret here will you have your moments where you may be getting a little anxious or nervous yeah that will happen but you pull yourself back and you say god is faithful see focusing on god not my faith focusing on god and who he is go back to chapter 11. he did this for this when he did that this is why scripture is so important for us was important for them and it continues to be important for us providing those testimonies those witnesses that say yup he's faithful yes he did this for me look to those witnesses they're providing ongoing evidence that he is faithful so that i can run with patience my race so that i can abide in patience while god is bringing things to pass in my life so i can continue to do his will while he's setting up things in my life for other things to happen i hope that makes sense to you that patience is a force it is not passive is both active and passive it is a passive waiting in that i'm not maybe not actively running around and making things come to pass that god's already working on but the activity of patience is the resistance to the contrary that the contrary uh testimonies that try to tell me that god is not faithful to the contrary information that tries to prove to me that god is not able or willing to do what he has said i'm going to resist that so there's an active resistance to that to that information that allows me to stand in patience knowing that what he has promised he is performing okay so first one there we got that so run the race that is set before us looking unto jesus the author and the 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 um make sure that i okay so when we talk about the joy here all right when we talk about this joy here um there's two ways you will hear this talked about okay one of them is that who for the joy that is set before which i believe we can gather also from this i do when you look ahead to what's ahead of you there is a joy in the completion of what you are here to do that enables you to persevere regardless of the contradiction or opposition that comes your way but in terms of the context and the usage of the word um what we're looking at here is uh is a word that that basically he had the joy already he already had when he came he became as we said before a little lower than the angels in terms of being walking in a physical body his physical presence okay was not his former presence now he walked as a man for a time in order to be that sacrifice that needed to be made okay so he did that he put aside everything so um in looking at the context and the word usage of the day the idea conveyed here probably more is he he for the joy that he put aside the joy that was set before him he put aside his godly attributes his god godly rewards everything he was who he was as god the son he put all that aside in order to accomplish and what needed to be done which was to endure the cross and move through that process to bring salvation to us i don't believe it violates the concepts as well to be able to say for us in our situations to be able to look forward to where we're going and be able to say it doesn't matter what i'm enduring i'm going in that direction but to be able to recognize all that he put aside in order to do for us what we needed to have done he didn't need to get saved we did and he put aside all that he had all that he had he put it aside so that he could gain this for us all right uh the author and the finisher of our faith for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame i mean i think about god himself being treated the way he allowed himself to be treated and being able to just most of us if somebody gives us a dirty look we're ready to leave so offended right everything's enough an offense get offended and get offended i need respect i should be treated with we're so defensive of being respected and here he was treated with no respect at all for who he was and yet he endured all of that because of what needed to be done for us so his faith appears in his renouncing what was already in his possession in exchange for shame and death on our behalf wow just it it it chokes me up just to think about that that he just put it aside and endured all of this for me for you for us it's important for us to view it as me individuals as well as us but stop he did it for you he did it for me and this is and this is he knew there was his faith okay if i could say it that way he knew what he was doing and he knew what the outcome was going to be there was never a moment that he wasn't going to do it well what about in the garden it was it was a complete thought no take this cup if there's another way but not my will your will be done it was a complete thought there wasn't even a break in it he wasn't waiting for god to let him off the hook he knew what the outcome was and even to say if there was another way we would do this so that we could know that as well if there was another way maybe we could have done this another way but there was no other way for this to happen therefore he did it not my will but thy will be done and at this point then he sat down at the right hand of the throne of god he need never arise and repeat his work again once for all he never needs to go to the cross again we don't need to go to the cross that's done it is complete it is finished and that's what we need to understand that's what this this audience needs to understand for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weary and faint in your minds considered what he endured know and understand what he went through and also then know and understand that he knows how to take you through he understands you he endured when you feel um offended when you feel hurt when you feel mistreated when you feel whatever know he has felt that and so much more and he will take you through no one can take apart who you are let me say this to you because one of the things that people struggle with is their sense of themselves and who they are no one can take you apart from within when you know this truth he understands everything he encountered every single day contradicted who he was and what he was here for and he moved through that follow him you encounter things each and every day that contradicts things that god has spoken to you that contradicts who he has made you to be that contradicts what he has called you to do that's not who you're supposed to be listening to listen to him jesus understands and if you grab a hold of his coat his garment and follow him through this you will go to the other side keep your eyes fixed on where you're going where he's taking you because only he can take you there okay so and you won't need to go you don't need to go to the cross you don't need to hang on that cross for something you didn't do for something you were not guilty of he says don't do that lest you be weary and faint in your minds you know when it when it talks about that that fainting in the mind you know it's that growing weak that that weariness that comes from you know well you know i'm just let me and let me say this to you sometimes people think well i i just feel like i'm going through the motions you know what sometimes all you have is going through the motion sometimes all you have is just to keep on doing what you know is right and you may not feel it but let me tell you those feelings will change and it will come back and you will move forward with a greater ferociousness than you ever had before but don't give up because you're not feeling don't faint in your mind don't just go there standing firm this is what again we're talking to these early church people about don't give up stand firmly on what you know it will come to pass run your race look at him this is what he did he understands where having been tempted all the things that we've already discussed having done all of this he understands where you are he understands what you go through he will take you through this but you just got to stand with him you've just got to believe him don't be weary and faint in your minds keep on don't allow the contradiction of what you see going on around you to affect how you view god at any time at any point okay um verse four you have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin you have not been put on the course you have not had to do that he's saying just keep going forward he's already walked that walk he's already been there he's already done that and you have and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children my son despised not thou the chastening of the lord nor faint when you are rebuked of him for whom the lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives okay so in striving against sin their battle here again as we've said again and again was against the temptation of renouncing that professed faith of standing firmly upon what they said they believed that messiah in messiah okay in order to be relieved of the persecution again this we're not talking about dirty looks we're talking about real persecution that these people were were being subjected to and were having to endure and that feeling of like maybe it's just easier to go back and he's saying don't do that don't go back all right he submitted to that death on the cross and everything that was involved in it you keep moving forward all right um let's see you know what i think i'm going to stop here because i want to spend some time on this concept of the chastening of the lord because i think a lot of misunderstanding with that as well um that idea that it is punishment let me say this at the outset we're not talking about punishment all right we're talking about uh when parents discipline their children we know too many of the wrong ways that people do things and we forget to focus back on what the right way is discipline isn't to just punish children or punish people so that they do what you want them to do discipline is set out say for children to teach them it comes from teach the word disculo which is about teaching about instructing about guiding about directing so we're talking about guiding and directing in the right way not just you know see i can put if you do the wrong thing and i slap your hand that's not going to help me tell me what the right thing to do is tell me what to do i get tired well don't do this and don't do this what do you want me to do i cannot do the right thing if i don't know what the right thing is so when we talk about this chastening of the lord we're talking about something that comes under the directional or instructional concept as opposed to a way to punish a person for doing something and in the unfortunately in the religious world more often it is conveyed as a punishing um he's going to make you sick you're going to be in a car accident your house is going to burn down he's going to prove to you that you're wrong he's going to punish you that is not how god chastens so we're going to spend some time on that in the next class to make sure that we have that concept kind of clear in terms of of what's important to understand when we talk about the chastening of the lord again not punishment let me just get that out there right away we're not talking about him punishing we're talking about that direction and redirection one of the things that i want you to understand is this forward moving keep moving forward that we always see here the race that set before him endured the cross despite the joy that was all of these things that we see in scripture moving forward you can't move backwards if you are moving forward so that encouragement to move forward and keep going in the direction that god wants to move you in and recognizing that if he is moving you in a particular direction he is also going to provide the way for you to get there okay so let's stop here and we'll pick this up in the next class god bless you and see you next time