Faithfulness Encouraged
Hebrews 12
Introduction.
The main point of the book of Hebrews is expressed in chapters 9 and 10.
It is the idea that Christ is far superior to anything in the Jewish religious system.
Why would you continue to drive that old car around that requires a lot of maintenance to keep up when someone has a standing offer to give you a free, dependable car with all features?
On top of that your old car cannot get you to your destination, but the new one can.
All it will cost you to drive this amazing vehicle is to give up your old one.
There are a couple reasons why you might want to keep it: nostalgia, investment, family pressure, persecution.
It’s not a perfect analogy, but you get my meaning.
Why hold on to the old when Someone is eager to give you something far superior?
You see, following the OT system cannot truly forgive sins, but it requires a lot of work and effort to do all the Law.
Following the NT system can forgive your sins, there’s nothing you can do to earn that forgiveness. You just have to give up the old and obsolete, and embrace the new.
The rest of Ch. 10 and Chapters 11 and 12 are about what to do with this information.
Chapter 10 gave us reasons for faithfulness.
Chapter 11 gave us examples of faithfulness.
And Chapter 12 is giving us exhortations to be faithful.
So that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
The Greatest Example (12:1-3).
Suffering Expected (12:4-17).
Marching On to Zion (12:18-29).
Body.
The Greatest Example (12:1-3).
The great examples of Ch. 11.
Before the writer tells us about the greatest example, he dwells on the examples just expounded upon in the previous chapter.
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, and so many others were faithful in moments of triumph and in moments of great suffering.
And we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.
They have witnessed that it is possible to live such a faithful life even under the most dire of circumstances, and they see the victory at the end!
So as a result, we should do as they did, laying aside every weight, running that race to the best of our ability.
One great weight that can hinder our Christian walk is sin, and we need to lay it aside by repenting of it.
While we run, we have the greatest example to look to: Jesus.
The author and finisher of our faith.
He is the greatest example of faithfulness that we could ever have.
He is the one on whom our faith is founded and grounded as the author and finisher.
We don’t put our faith in David or Moses as great as those men were, but on Jesus Christ!
Have those faithful men in Ch. 11 suffered? Christ suffered more, too.
Those men in Ch. 11 had sinned at some point or another, but Jesus never did.
No one could ever tell Him He deserved what He got.
Pilate himself could find no fault in this Man—even so he sent Him to the cross which He endured.
So when we suffer, when we face persecution, know that Jesus faced far worse than we ever will.
While Christ was exalted after His shame, we, too we be exalted.
Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father! And we will be seated together in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).
Let us follow that example and not grow weary because suffering is expected.
Suffering Expected (12:4-17).
We often think Christianity is meant to be easy.
Once we have the Lord on our side, things will all go smoothly for us.
In fact, that’s a popular false doctrine out there—and you can see why!
Follow God and get goodies! But that’s a lie from the pit of hell.
In our western society, we are not really persecuted for our beliefs, not like those in eastern countries.
So we might get the false impression that being a Christian means getting material blessings, too.
But if it did, somebody forgot to tell Paul who was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and eventually beheaded for being a Christian, not to mention that thorn in the flesh that bothered him so.
And somebody forgot to tell this writer, who tells us that suffering is to be expected.
Do not despise the Lord’s chastening.
There are two different reasons for suffering as a Christian.
We might suffer like Job to be tested and tried.
Paul reveals in Romans 5 that such suffering, such tribulations brings perseverance, character, and hope (Rom. 5:3-4).
But there is another possible reason—chastening.
To be chastened means that we are corrected and punished, pushed to go in the right direction through unpleasant means.
Many times this is because of the natural consequences of sin.
We should embrace such chastening because it means we are God’s children.
If you’re a parent, well, you can’t parent every child, can you?
You can only parent your children. You’re not going to be able to ground somebody else’s teenager, after all.
But you can ground yours, teaching them that they can’t do this or that.
And when the child is grounded, being punished, they don’t much care for it, do they?
In either case, the Lord is teaching us through suffering, isn’t He?
Just as we might teach our children through discipline, He teaches us.
Therefore be strengthened.
While we may not appreciate being punished at first, we will appreciate it later.
That’s one of the great things about punishment from loving parents, we learn to be grateful for their teachings later in life.
But as adults, when God chastises us, we can appreciate it now, knowing that it leads to hope, the hope of our salvation.
The suffering we experience here on this earth from our sin is but an insignificant fraction of the suffering we could experience in hell.
If we avoid the minute suffering from our sin here on this earth, what will we be avoiding in eternity?
So we should be strengthened, pursuing peace and holiness, striving to do what’s right.
The writer provides the negative example of Esau.
Esau is the counterexample of those we see in Ch. 11.
Those great men and women of faith are contrasted to Esau’s lack of faith.
He traded what he could not see, his birthright, for what he could see, a bowl of soup—instant gratification.
The men of faith in Ch. 11 put on hold their desires for the promise of something greater.
There was no coming back from the decision Esau made, and by being profane, it suggests a form of apostasy—something which the writer has already warned against in Chs. 6 and 10.
Though he sought his birthright, it was just beyond his grasp no matter how much he wanted it now.
You see, now he could see it, it was no longer just a promise.
For us, when that faith is made sight after we die, there’s no longer an opportunity for repentance.
We either accept it now or not—after this is the judgment.
So let us march on to Zion.
Marching on to Zion (12:18-29).
On Mount Sinai.
Illustrations like this are used in other places in Scripture.
In Gal. 4, Paul compares Christians to the son of Sarah and the Jews to the son of Hagar.
He even says “this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:25-26).
This is the general idea that this writer is giving between Sinai (in Arabia) and Zion (the Jerusalem above).
He reviews what it was like for the Israelites upon first receiving the Law at the base of Mt. Sinai.
They were afraid at the sight, and at some point even Moses expressed his great fear over what was going on.
It was such an awesome event displaying the holiness of God to the point that no one could approach the mountain while the Lord was there except Moses.
Part of what brought the fear was the great shaking of the earth that the voice of God brought upon the area.
It was a frightful sight!
Mount Zion is better.
Of course Zion is a mountain that Jerusalem is built on, so often the name Zion is used interchangeably for Jerusalem—and indeed, here it is called the heavenly Jerusalem, which is that “Jerusalem above” in Gal. 4:26.
And it is often used in a spiritual sense, Zion as a spiritual location, the “city of the living God.”
And these Jewish Christians, and by extension we, have come to Zion.
That is the church of Christ, the group of people, that general assembly that belongs to Him—we are His children!
After all Christ is the firstborn over all creation and the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:15, 18).
That means He was the first to be resurrected, and all those who are “registered in heaven” will follow suit one day.
We come to angels, of which Christ is far better than.
We come to God who is our Judge!
And to Jesus, blessed Jesus.
Here He repeats that He is the Mediator of the better covenant.
This is a culmination of all we have seen thus far in Hebrews.
Everything we have in Zion, in His church, is far superior to what they had from Sinai.
One thing that is specifically point out here is the lack of fear.
We have no need to be afraid of Zion as they were of Sinai.
Death would come to anyone who approached Sinai except for their mediator Moses.
Yet we can “boldly approach the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16).
And His blood can actually forgive our sins!
The blood of Christ can speak the gospel, something greater than what Abel’s blood spoke to.
Abel’s blood cried out and condemned Cain; Christ’s blood cries out and forgives me and you, and all those whose names are registered in heaven.
But even though we don’t see that sight on Mt. Sinai today, even though we have no reason to fear, we must not forget that “our God is a consuming fire.”
An unshakable kingdom.
We must not refuse, neglect, or drift away from the great salvation that we have in Christ.
This section calls to mind what the writer was talking about all the way back in Heb. 2:1-4, some elements of Heb. 10:26-29, and even some from Heb. 1:1-2.
If the people in the OT did not escape judgment when they refused the words of the prophets who spoke to the fathers, then what might happen to us if we refuse the words of His Son who speaks to us from heaven.
This ultimately points to how much better the new covenant is to the old, but the downfall is great still since rejection means rejecting the Son of God.
He voice shook the earth then, but will shake it again, leaving only what cannot be shaken.
Turns out there is only one thing that is unshakable, that unshakable kingdom, the church of the firstborn, the assembly of those whose names are registered in heaven.
And since we are receiving that unshakable kingdom, that kingdom that will last forever, that eternal kingdom, how should we act?
We need to be gracious, to be of service to God, to be reverent, and to express godly fear.
Not the same fear that the Israelites did at Sinai, but a respectful fear.
Why? Because “our God is a consuming fire,” meaning His judgments are great, just, and terrifying.
So let us treat Him with the love and respect that our God deserves!
Conclusion.
But whatever you do, do not neglect to have your name registered in heaven!
You know how you go to a particular event or you sign up for a class, you want to make sure you’ve registered.
It can get rather embarrassing if you ever show up to something, and you realize after you’ve sat down and gotten all your stuff out that you are not registered for it.
You need to check and double check to make sure that won’t happen to you on the Day of Judgment.
You need to make sure you’re saved.
As we have gone through this lesson, we have seen many things from Hebrews.
While we have so many great examples of faith throughout the Bible, the author and finisher of our faith is none other than Christ Jesus.
And just like Jesus suffered, we too will suffer in some way.
We may not always know why we suffer, but we should always trust in God.
Regardless, Christ leads us away from Sinai and toward Zion, toward the church that He owns, the church of Christ.
You need to make sure you are in that church, that your name is registered in heaven, that you are marching on to Zion.
Here’s how….