Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 29. Jos 1:16-18; survey of Heb.

Class Outline:

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 29. JOS 1:16-18; survey of Heb.   

 

Announcements/opening prayer:

 

 

This is our fifth passage for consideration in the book of Hebrews.

 

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us [not looking but gone before us], let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

 

HEB 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

"for" - anti which predominantly means "instead of". "instead of the joy then present with Him"

 

It could be that his use of the word anti refers is for those whom He would save. This may well be the meaning since it would not imply that the Lord enjoyed the cross. By combining both interpretations we still maintain the integrity of the passage in that His present joy that was fellowship with the Father was broken when He was judged for our sins, and His eyes were always upon those whom He would save, which after it was finished, His joy would be returned and that joy would be made full in them.

 

His personal joy was the glory that He had with the Father before the world was. It was His fellowship with the Father during the incarnation. He was always, from all eternity, in the bosom of the Father, and this joy He exchanged for the cross of shame.

 

The heroic character of His faith appears ultimately when He exchanged His joy with the Father for shame, sin, and spiritual death so that we could have life and joy by means of that same faith.

 

Php 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;

 

Php 2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

 

Php 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

 

Do you think you can face undeserved suffering and persecution after you understand what He faced and how He faced it?

 

Php 2:6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

 

Php 2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

 

Php 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

HEB 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

He endured the cross, despising the shame. To die by crucifixion was to plumb the lowest depths of disgrace. It was a punishment reserved for those who were deemed of all men most unfit to live.

 

From so degrading a death Roman citizens were exempt by ancient statute. For slaves and criminals of low degree, it was regarded as a suitable means of execution, and a grim deterrent to others.

 

Yet such a punishment was not worthy to be taken into consideration when it was a question of obedience to the Father. And so He was the perfecter of faith.

 

Such a depth of disgrace that was a Roman cross faded behind the great purpose of the Father, the defeat of God's enemies, and the salvation of man. In light of these things the cross in no way became light or easy, but the disgrace and shame of it became less important than the great purpose of the grace of God. One could say that you were more important to Him than the shame that He endured. And, if you really choose to be Christlike in life, others must, in the same way, become more important than yourself.

 

ISA 53:10

But the Lord was pleased

To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

He will see His offspring,

He will prolong His days,

And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

 

HEB 2:10

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

 

HEB 5:8-10

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

 

This verse implies that His faith in the Father in the suffering that occurred throughout His life and ministry prepared Him for the ultimate suffering at the cross where His faith in the Father would reach its perfection.

 

His joy in fellowship with the Father would return to Him when it was finished. At His ascension He would enter heaven in resurrection body as our forerunner and the joys of heaven would reach its crowning point.  

 

What joy there must have been for Him and for heaven when He entered in resurrection body to the position of the right hand of God. This was not a joy just for Him, but the joy that He earned for us.

 

His joy was lost when He was separated from His Father on the cross, but not any time before or after. This means He maintained His joy when under the greatest persecution. This is the joy that He has given to us. Will we pursue it?

 

JOH 15:11

"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

 

JOH 16:20

"Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.

 

JOH 17:13

"But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

 

He need never arise and repeat His work on the Cross for sinners. It is a finished work. He is not only seated, but He occupies the position of preeminence, at the right hand of God.

 

He has been exalted and the place that He has gone, He has gone as His people's forerunner.

 

JOH 14:3

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

 

This the finish to the pathway of faith. The Pioneer has reached it first, but the others who believe will share it with Him. We have opportunity like no one has ever had, to walk in a manner worthy of His calling. We have been given by grace all that we need to live a life like His in a world where many detest Him, shun Him, are embarrassed about Him, and wish to never speak or hear about Him. Those who choose such a life, His life, will share a closer position with Him in heaven.

 

REV 3:21

'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

 

HEB 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

 

When we consider Him we see that our sufferings, the result of the persecutions which we are enduring, seem insignificant compared to His.

 

The recipients of this epistle, some of whom are thinking within themselves that they should leave the fellowship of the faithful due to the persecution, have not been called upon to endure anything like their Master's sufferings.

 

When we begin to become weary and grow faint of heart because there seems to be no end to the trials that we have to endure, we must consider Him.

 

"Can you go one more day? Yes Lord, I will go with You one more day."

 

HEB 12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;

 

The readers have not had yet to resist to the point of death. So then it is likely that they are not a part of those who suffered death in Rome in 64 A.D. They might yet, though, have to meet fiercer trials than had come their way thus far; but this was no time to get discouraged, when they thought of others who remained steadfast amid sufferings much worse than theirs.

 

1CO 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

 

1PE 5:9

But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

 

They ought rather to realize that their present hardships were a token of their heavenly Father's love for them, and the means by which He was training them to be more truly His sons.

 

Their striving against sin was their battle against the temptation of renouncing their professed faith in Messiah in order that they might be relieved of the persecution which they were enduring. His striving against sin was His submitting to the death of the Cross, with all that that involved, His becoming sin for us, the breaking for the time of the fellowship between the Father and the Son, and all the intense and awful physical agony of crucifixion.

 

Next the writer reminds his listeners of the instruction they had already learned about divine discipline. It must be that some of them did fail in faith and God's divine discipline was added to their undeserved persecution. When they deserted the faith they might have been relieved of persecution only to find the experience of another type of suffering. So that they wouldn't fall into complete despair the writer reminds them that if they are experiencing divine discipline it is from the love of God because God is their Father and they are sons and what son does not receive discipline from their father? Those who are trained by it, it produces the peaceful fruits of righteousness.

 

HEB 12:12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

 

HEB 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.