Thursday, June 23, 2011

Considering Jesus

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding 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, 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 consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart" (Hebrews 12:1-3)

"Well, consider that!" is a well-worn cliche from many years ago, beloved. To "consider" anything means to fix your focus upon it, to give it your undivided attention, to make it the focal point of your thoughts and even actions.

We come this week to the fourth and final key command in the verses above, imperatives from God through the writer of the book of Hebrews. We have already discovered together three such commands - strip down for the race, run the race with endurance, and fix our attention upon the finish line. In conclusion, we are told to "consider" Jesus. The word "consider" in Greek is analogizomai and means "reckon upon" or "add up" as in calculating a thing and drawing an inescapable conclusion.

The reason for us to "consider" Jesus, beloved, as the author has revealed to us, concerns what He bore on our behalf. We should consider the "hostility" He put up with from the religious leaders of His day and from the disbelief of people who would not accept Him as Messiah. He even had to put up with the timidity and flip-flopping faith of His own disciples! Yet He endured it all and gained the victory for us over sin and death and hell. Because He endured what He did, we have been enabled to endure as well.

And what is it that we are enabled to do today as a result of all that He bore? We have been given the ability first of all to refuse to grow weary in our service as disciples of Christ. The Greek verb kamno means literally "tire" or "faint" in the sense of giving up before crossing the finish line. Because of His example that is ever before us, we can finish our course just as He finished His!

Then we can and must also refuse to lose heart. The Greek phrase here means literally "become faint in your soul." It is the believer's resolve, then, that is at stake and we have been empowered through Christ to refuse to give up and just quit the race. Remember that great cloud of witnesses that this writer mentioned in the first verse? Consider just a few examples for a moment:

The patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
The prophets - Moses, Elijah, Samuel, Daniel
The apostles - Peter, James, John, Paul
The martyrs - Stephen, Polycarp, Jim Elliott
The preachers - Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Spurgeon, Adrian Rogers
The missionaries - William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Bertha Smith

We may not be running our own race of personal holiness before their eyes, beloved, but their testimony is certainly ever before us! Great servants such as these were faithful in their time and now have passed the baton down to us. What will the next generation of servants say about our running of the race? Consider that!

Ron