How “Joy” Makes Enduring Possible!
Hebrews 12:1-3
May 19, 2013 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
I.
Introduction (Hebrews 12:1-2)
A.
We don’t endure very well.
B.
No one has ever found it easy
to endure, or persevere through the hard times of life
1.
Frustration, stress builds up
inside us to the point of exhaustion
2.
And we quit doing right – we just
quit doing what we know deep down to be right
3.
Our modern generation is filled
with QUITTERS! And it shows
a.
People are doing more and more
b.
But FINISHING less and less!
c.
Everyone today feels like
failures – living to be entertained instead of to finish!
C.
God has called us to run a race
(Heb 12:1)
1.
You don’t have to WIN the race…
2.
But you do have to finish it!
D.
I am amazed at the life lived by
Jesus of Nazareth!
1.
A life of steady perseverance!
And endurance!
2.
A life not lived in ease, or with
no problems, or hardships
3.
But a life of constant hardships,
that never swayed Him from His course
4.
Jesus said “If I be lifted up, I
will draw all men unto myself”
5.
So this morning I want to
thoroughly lift Him up!
II.
Message (Hebrews 12:2,3)
A.
The Main Focus – Looking Unto
Jesus (Hebrews 12:2)
1.
We often look to each other for
encouragement, for hope
a.
We usually look to our friends to
pick us up
b.
To the government (more and more)
to fix our problems
c.
To religious leaders (so many
still do…) to make us feel good
d.
To ourselves even (constantly
told to look inside ourselves, and look for the power within…)
e.
And yet, every one of them FAILS
US at some time or another! Big time!
2.
What makes us as Christians
different, is that we ONLY look to Jesus!
a.
What does an atheist look to? A
dark hole in the ground is their only hope – their only exit from this life of
woe!
b.
What does an evolutionist look
to? A bubbling test tube in a laboratory.
c.
What does a Catholic look to? A
dead statue, an icon, a mable altar.
d.
But, WE have something much
better!
1)
Isa 45:22
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God,
and there is none else.
2)
Joh 1:29
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
3)
2Ti 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing.
4)
Tit 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ
e.
People let us down all the time.
But not Jesus of Nazareth!
3.
“Looking
unto Jesus” means…
a.
Keeping my attention on Him
1)
NOT ON THE ECONOMY
2)
Or on my stocks or investments
3)
Not on my successes or
accomplishments
4)
But on this lowly Carpenter’s
Son, who lived right here, in this world
b.
Learning everything I can from
the way Jesus lived
c.
Letting Jesus be MY example, my
pattern of life, my leader – to follow His footsteps
d.
Leaning on His wisdom, doing
things His way
e.
Making JESUS the measure of my
life – if I can be more like Him, then I am a success!
f.
That’s why we here seek to be
CHRIST-ians – LIKE CHRIST!
1)
Not Einsteinians, or Hawking-ites
(super smart-alecks)
2)
Not Oscar Wild-ians, or Maeve
Binchians
3)
Not Beyoncians, or Emineminites!
4)
Not Mother Theresians, or John
Paul the Secondians
5)
I want to be like Jesus Christ!
g.
The greatest thing you can do
this morning is to look unto Him - keep your eyes, your attention on Him!
B.
He is Not Only the Starter,
but, the Finisher (Hebrews 12:2)
1.
I am so glad that God stepped
into this world and gave us something rock solid to believe!
a.
Something better than
b.
Something better than evolution!
c.
Something better than religion
d.
God is the AUTHOR of everything
that is right, and real to believe
e.
“He” AUTHORED our faith!
f.
These are NOT cunningly devised
fables of men…
1)
Like JK Rowling’s – Harry Potter
– magical spells
2)
Dan Brown’s – Da Vinci Code –
secret powers and knowledge
3)
But God has given to us real,
tested and proven FAITH – something that we really CAN hold onto and believe
with all our heart
2.
But, I am MORE glad that God not
only authored our faith, but FINISHES it as well!
a.
Philp 1:6 Being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ.
b.
Psa 138:8
The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD,
endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
c.
1Th 5:23,24
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that
calleth you, who also will do it.
3.
Thank God that when He said,
“Follow me” He meant we could follow Him all the way home! Not because we can
get there, but because HE will get us there!
4.
He really IS the FINISHER of our
faith!
C.
But Here is the BIGGEST Thing
About Jesus (Hebrews 12:2,3)
1.
Summary
a.
He Endured Everything!
b.
He Actually Despised the Shame of
All that he was Going Through!
2.
He Endured Everything!
a.
It would be one thing to say that
Jesus experienced problems
b.
It is another thing to know that
he ENDURED problems
1)
Put up with problems,
disappointments, let-downs
2)
Put up with problem people
3)
Put up with hardness and hard
times
4)
He endured them all!
c.
Jesus had a job to do, a race to
run (repairing the broken relationship between God and mankind), and that task
demanded endurance (Mt 16:21; 20:18,19)
1)
He had to suffer through it
2)
He couldn’t quit!
d.
You see, He ENDURED – “Such
Contradiction of Sinners” (Heb 12:3)!
1)
He Endured the Confusion and
Ignorance of people – no matter how much He taught them
a)
They were so messed up in their
religion – looking for more things to DO to earn God’s love and favour
b)
They only wanted a warrior, not a
Saviour
c)
Yet Jesus, PRESSED ON, and kept
teaching, kept loving ignorant people!
2)
He Endured the Crowds – the
numbers of people did not impress Jesus!
a)
Often Jesus would take a crippled
or bland man AWAY from all the crowds to heal them
b)
He saw them as a big circus
c)
They came only for the free food
and entertainment
d)
Yet Jesus persevered – kept
heading to the cross
3)
He Endured the Calamities –
storms that came up against Him
a)
He was in the same ships that His
disciples were sinking in time after time
b)
He faced the same storms
c)
He never once shied away from the
storms they were in
d)
He just kept going forward
e)
He was going to finish His race!
4)
He Endured all the Criticism
a)
The Pharisees and Sadducees
constantly sought to find FAULT with Jesus
b)
Jesus had to live every day with
people watching His every move, and listening to every word – NOT to learn from
and be encouraged, but to find a fault in Him
c)
Envy and jealousy drove His
enemies mad
d)
They hunted Him, waited for Him
to come so they could pounce on Him and prove Him wrong
e)
Yet Jesus kept going!
5)
He Endured His Conditions
a)
Constantly poor, tired, hungry,
walking everywhere
b)
Yet He kept walking, never
calling for a heavenly chariot
c)
He kept heading to
6)
He Endured God’s Commandments
a)
Jesus lived under the same rules
you and I are supposed to live by – God’s laws
b)
And boy did He live by the Book!
c)
However hard you may find it to
keep God’s laws, so did Jesus – YET HE DID IT!
d)
And not just the Big Ten
Commandments, but all 613 in the Old Testament!
7)
He Endured His Father’s
Commission – His purpose and calling
a)
It was hard! Yet He Endured it
b)
No matter the cost (John
18:10,11)
8)
He Endured the Contradiction of
His Companions – His Own Disciples (Mt 26:37-44)
a)
They were constantly arguing over
who would be greatest
b)
They were constantly complaining
about all the work they were being asked to do in ministering to people’s needs
c)
They were constantly missing the
points of Jesus’ teachings
d)
And when he needed them the most,
in the
e)
What great friends and
companions!
f)
Yet, He kept going.
e.
As If THAT Wasn’t Enough, He
Endured the Cross
1)
With all its Conspirators
a)
Oh how the Pharisees and
Sadducees, and Herodians had planned and schemed, but without success
b)
And then along came Judas
Iscariot
c)
And they together, conspired to
capture and crucify Jesus
d)
And Jesus knowing all this,
PRESSED ON ANYWAY
2)
With its Fake Courts – He
received no justice that day!
3)
With all its Criminals
a)
One on each side, mocking Him,
demanding Him to get them off their crosses
b)
The sinless Son of God was
surrounded by the filthiest mouths, and the most wicked of men
c)
And yet He endured
4)
And its Crucifixion
a)
The most awful form of torture in
all of human history was the process of crucifixion
b)
It all began when Jesus was taken
from prayer in the
1.
And He was beaten, and bruised.
2.
His beard was ripped from his
face.
3.
He was spit upon
4.
He was whipped 40 times with
leather whips across His neck, and back and thighs
5.
He was marched several hundred
metres through the city of Jerusalem, up a hill just outside the city gates
called Golgotha, with a massive and heavy cross weighing Him down each and every
step of the way
6.
He then was violently nailed to
that cross, and left to die
7.
It took every ounce of strength
to pull His body up that cross just to take in one breath
8.
And every time he moved on that
cross, lightening bolts of pain would explode in His wrists and feet
9.
Not to mention the agony of the
scraping of His wounds on His back as he moved up and down that old, rugged
wooden cross!
10.
Yet He didn’t quit. He kept on,
he endured!
11.
Mat 26:53,54
“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall
presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the
scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”
3.
Along with Enduring, He Actually
Despised the Shame of All that he was Going Through!
a.
Normally problems in your life
prove you are doing something wrong! That you are a failure!
b.
But Jesus knew better! And so
should YOU!
c.
It means that Jesus despised, He
rejected, He ignored everything happening around Him that might stop Him from
finishing what God asked Him to do!
1)
All the shame, the embarrassment
of that cross, He rejected
a)
They had
b)
They had totally stripped Him
naked
c)
They had publically mocked Him
before Pilate, and then mocked Him some more while He hung on the cross
d)
And they brutally beat Him –
PUBLICALLY
2)
But, He rejected all that
embarrassment!
4.
How?
a.
How did He endure such great
contradiction of sinners?
b.
How did He endure the cross?
c.
How did He despise all the same
and turn away from every reason to quit?
d.
The answer is sort of sneakily
stuck in the middle of Heb 12:2…
III.
Application – For the Joy that Was Set
Ahead of Him
A.
THIS was the power behind
even Messiah’s endurance – Joy!
1.
John 15:11
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and
that your joy might be full.
2.
John 16:33
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In
the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the
world.
B.
The Joy Factor
1.
Pleasure, fun, entertainment only
lasts a season
2.
But joy is totally different
3.
It is a feeling that comes NOT
because something good is happening to us, but because we know something good
WILL happen
4.
Joy is the result of hope! What
HOPE did Jesus have that enabled Him to press on?
C.
What Joy was just beyond
the Cross?
1.
The Joy of the Resurrection – He
KNEW He would rise again!
a.
The cross was NOT the end
b.
The tomb was not final
c.
No matter what anyone thought,
Sunday was coming when that stone would be rolled away, and everyone would find
it EMPTY!
d.
Oh how amazing it must have been
for Jesus to watch the joy spread! He was there, standing near the tomb the
whole time as
1)
The women came and went
2)
As Peter and John came running to
see and then went away astonished
3)
As Mary Magdalene hung around and
mistook Jesus for the gardener
e.
Jesus enjoyed walking alongside
the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus as they wondered at the news of the
empty tomb.
2.
The Joy of Repentant Sinners,
Converted, and Saved from Sin (Luke 15:4-7,10) He knew people would get saved,
born again, forgiven!
a.
To this very minute, the greatest
joy for God is watching boys and girls, men and women, young and old, humbling
themselves before Him and crying out for forgiveness from their sinful lives and
asking to be born again!
b.
No greater joy!
3.
The Joy of Defeating the Devil –
He knew the devil was a loser!
a.
Jesus does not get excited about
b.
The Lord Jesus really enjoyed
defeating the devil (Heb 2:14)
4.
The Joy of Accomplishing His
Father’s Will (Isaiah 53:10,11; John 17:1-4)
D.
We Are Offered the SAME
Joy – the SAME POWER to endure!
1.
The Joy of the Resurrection
a.
This is NOT all there is to life
b.
There is a BETTER day a coming –
an eternal day!
2.
The Joy of Saved lives and homes
a.
I love seeing people saved
b.
I love seeing marriages
miraculously restored
c.
I love seeing grown men weeping
over their sinfulness and getting right with God
d.
Its’ BETTER than any drug, or any
pleasure this world can offer
3.
The Joy of ruining the devil’s
day
a.
Not giving in to some temptation
He throws at me
b.
Not letting him pull my strings
anymore
c.
Not giving him the pleasure of
being the god of my life anymore
4.
The Joy of Doing Our Father’s
Will
5.
All that JOY will help you
endure…
a.
YOUR cross
b.
YOUR failures
c.
YOUR hardships
d.
YOUR boredom
IV.
Conclusion
A.
Jesus Endured, Because of
joy
1.
He didn’t quit, when everyone
else did
2.
He is sitting victorious at the
Father’s right hand in heaven right now
3.
All because of Joy!
B.
That’s why Paul tells us
in Hebrews 12:3 to “CONSIDER HIM”
1.
Lest we be weary in our minds and
faint…
2.
Become tired of trying…
3.
And, not finish the Christian
race that we were all called to run
C.
Look Unto Jesus (Hebrews
12:2)
1.
Isa 45:22
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God,
and there is none else.
2.
Joh 1:29
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
3.
It doesn’t matter WHO else has
let you down, Jesus never will!
4.
Keep you attention on Him
5.
Make JESUS the measure of your
life
D.
Because He Endured!
E.
How?
1.
How did He endure such great
contradiction of sinners?
2.
How did He endure the cross?
3.
How did He despise all the same
and turn away from every reason to quit?
F.
For the Joy that Was Set Ahead of Him
1.
The Joy of the Resurrection – He
KNEW He would rise again!
2.
The Joy of Repentant Sinners,
Converted, and Saved from Sin (Luke 15:4-7,10) He knew people would get saved,
born again, forgiven!
3.
The Joy of Defeating the Devil –
He knew the devil was a loser!
4.
The Joy of Accomplishing His
Father’s Will (Isaiah 53:10,11; John 17:1-4)
G.
We Are Offered the SAME
Joy
H.
If you decide to get it this
morning, it will help you endure…
1.
YOUR cross, no matter how heavy
2.
YOUR failures, no matter how bad
3.
YOUR hardships, no matter how
hard
4.
YOUR boredom, no matter how hard