Hebrews 3:1:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus;
Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also was Moses in all His house.
And in the same book, Hebrews 12:1-2:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith,
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame,
and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do want to thank Thee for so loving us as to give Thine only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus, to us. And, dear Lord Jesus, we do want to thank Thee for giving Thy life to us.
We owe everything to Thee. All that we are today, Lord, is because of Thee. So we just want to gather together in Thy presence, thanking Thee for all Thy kindness, mercy, and love, which Thou hast so bountifully given to us.
And Lord, we thank Thee that Thou hast not only blessed us with many blessings, but Thou dost also bless us with Thy precious Word. Lord, we do love Thy Word more than anything else, because Thy Word is life and spirit to us.
So, dear Lord, we pray that as we consider Thy Word together this morning, may Thy Holy Spirit breathe upon Thy written Word and make it living and operative in our lives. Enlighten us, open our eyes and understanding, and lead us into Thy truth. And we will give Thee all the glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
The letter to the Hebrews was written to the Hebrews who believed in the Lord Jesus in the early first century. Now, they were Hebrews—Jews—but they turned from Judaism and turned to Christ Jesus.
In the beginning, the Roman government considered Christianity as a sect of Judaism, and Judaism was protected by the Roman government. So, in the early days, when these Hebrews turned to Christ, they were protected by the Roman government. Even though, in a sense, they were persecuted by their own fellow Hebrews, yet they were protected by the government.
But then, you remember Nero, the emperor of Rome. He burned Rome, and he put the blame on the Christians. So after that, the Christians were greatly persecuted, not only by their fellow Hebrews in Judaism, but also by the Roman government.
So they were in a very difficult time. And during that time of persecution, some of those Hebrew believers were weakened, and they were even thinking of returning to Judaism in order to get protection from the Roman government.
It was under that kind of circumstance that this letter was written. It was written before A.D. 70, which is the time when Jerusalem was destroyed, and it was addressed to these Hebrew believers.
The Holy Spirit used a human instrument to write this letter. Now, this letter is a letter of exhortation, because when you read the letter to the Hebrews to the end—in Hebrews 13:22—the writer says:
But I exhort you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written unto you in few words.
Now, to us, when we read the letter to the Hebrews, it seems to be a long letter. It has altogether thirteen chapters. But if you understand the burden, the heart of God, you will find that it is just a few words. But these words are words of exhortation.
Now, what is exhortation? Exhortation includes two things. On the one hand, it is encouragement. So these are words of encouragement—to encourage people to go on in the right path.
And exhortation is also warning: warning people lest they draw back. What will happen if they draw back? So you find both the positive and the negative. By using both sides, people will be exhorted to press on toward the goal.
Now, brothers and sisters, why is it that this letter to the Hebrews is most relevant to us today? We are not Hebrews by birth. We are considered Gentiles. But thank God, by the grace of God, we believe in the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior.
But, in a spiritual sense, we are all Hebrews. Why? Because the very word Hebrew means crossing the river. You remember the first Hebrew, Abraham. He used to live in Ur of the Chaldees—that is, Babylon.
But God called him. The glory of God appeared to him. So, in obedience to the call of God, he crossed the river. He crossed the Euphrates River, and he also crossed the Jordan River. He entered into the promised land.
But when he was in the promised land, he was a stranger and a sojourner. He never settled down. He traveled; he passed through. But he was a stranger and a sojourner.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, if we apply this spiritually, then we will understand why this letter is so relevant to us today. Because we who have believed in the Lord Jesus have all crossed over the river.
As the children of Israel, when God delivered them out of Egypt, crossed the sea—the Red Sea—so, dear brothers and sisters, we who have believed in the Lord Jesus have all crossed over the river.
And what does it mean? It means that formerly we belonged to the world, but now we are called out of the world and called into Christ Jesus. So that is crossing the river.
That is the reason why you find one who believes in the Lord Jesus should be baptized. And what is the meaning of baptism? Going through the water, crossing the water. When you enter the water, the world is buried. When you come out of the water, you belong to Christ.
Now Christ is your life; Christ is your Lord. So, spiritually speaking, we are all spiritual Hebrews. Now we have believed in the Lord Jesus, and by believing in Him, we do not belong to the world anymore.
Formerly we were dwellers of the earth. The earth was our hope; the earth was our destination, our destiny. We were all earthbound. But thank God, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, we become strangers to the world. We become sojourners, travelers, passing through on our way.
We turn from the world to Christ. We turn from the earth to heaven. So, brothers and sisters, we are people who are fellow travelers. We are traveling together toward heaven.
And by heaven, it does not mean the physical heaven that you can see. Heaven, in the Scripture, to us is where God is; it is where our Lord Jesus is today. And that is where we are heading. So, you can see, brothers and sisters, this is what we are today.
So you find in Hebrews 3:1, “Wherefore, holy brethren.” We are holy, right? Now, what do you mean by holy brethren? Holy means separated. We have been separated from the world and unto Christ. So we are holy brethren.
And not only that, but we are partakers of the heavenly calling. We have a calling, just like Abraham. God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees and into Canaan land.
So we have been called, all of us, brothers and sisters. We have been called out of this world, and then we become partakers, fellow journeyers. We are all journeying together in that heavenly calling.
We are all called upward. We are called to follow the Lord Jesus. We are called to run the race, finish our course, and receive our prize—that is, winning Christ. So this is where we are.
Some people think that believing in the Lord Jesus means that, from now on, you have no problem, you have no trouble, everything is solved, and, as it were, you will be sitting in a sedan chair and be carried into heaven.
Now, if you have that kind of concept, you are totally wrong, because the opposite is the truth. While you were still in the world, you had problems. But after you have believed in the Lord Jesus, all these worldly problems were solved; yet problems of another kind began to come to you.
Why? Because you are now like a living fish swimming against the tide. You find that this world through which you are traveling is so opposite to Christ. The earth is so opposite to heaven.
And for you, a heavenly person, to live on this earth as a stranger, alien, and sojourner, do you think there will be no problem, no temptation, no trials, no persecution, no suffering for righteousness’ sake? Of course, you should expect it.
So, brothers and sisters, remember this: after you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are placed on a racecourse. Jessie Penn-Lewis said that as soon as you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are placed on a racecourse. In other words, there is no more leisurely loitering. You ought to run.
To be a Christian never means that you have leisure time, that you can just wander around without any responsibility, without any opposition. No. To be a Christian means that you are running. Of course, God has put you on a course that leads to heaven.
You remember, in Old Testament times, in the early days, there was a man called Enoch. Before he begot a son called Methuselah, I think he was sixty-five when that son was born.
Now, before that time, it seems to me that he lived a very self-centered, undisciplined life, enjoying himself as most people will do. But strangely, after the son was born, a complete change came to Enoch.
The Bible says he began to walk with God. Formerly he walked by himself. He walked with the world; he followed the current. But now, after the son was born, something happened—a revelation—and that changed his whole life. He began to turn around and walk with God.
Now, do you think walking with God is easy? If you are walking with an easygoing person—doesn’t matter, anything is okay—that will be easy walking. But if you are walking with a person who is disciplined, honest, and strict, it is not easy.
And think of God. Our God is perfect. He is all righteous; He is holy; He lives in the light. There is no darkness in Him. There is no turning in Him.
And if you want to walk with Him—not merely want Him to walk with you—you must walk with God. Now, we want Him to walk with us, you know. Wherever we go, we want Him to be with us, to protect us, to help us, to provide for us. But that is another way. The way is that you walk with God.
So the very name Enoch means discipline. In other words, unless you are disciplined, there is no way to walk with God. God will discipline you. God will chastise you. God will train you in order to bring you to where God is.
So Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and God took him. In other words, he walked, walked, and walked until he reached heaven. Now, brothers and sisters, this is what we should be. This is what God meant for us.
So we are all today not just walking, but even running, because the time is short.
Now, recently, you find that they have marathons in different places—the Boston Marathon, and even in Richmond we had a marathon recently. So you can see, it is not just a hundred-yard dash. Now, it is easier to make a hundred-yard dash, but it is a marathon.
Day after day, month after month, year after year, you have to press on. And not only that, in a marathon you have uphill and downhill. Sometimes we feel that uphill is easy, but after you have run, you will find downhill is worse.
And not only that, we are on an obstacle course. As you run, you find there are lots of obstacles, all kinds of unexpected obstacles. Some you have to jump over, some you have to swim over, and some you have to crawl over.
Now, I wonder if anyone has read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. It used to be very famous, but I wonder if people today really read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
He was a servant of the Lord, and because of his faithfulness to God’s Word, he was put in prison. And while he was in prison, he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.
He said, as if he were dreaming a dream, that he saw a man deeply burdened by the things of this world and seeking for deliverance. Then he was directed by an evangelist to go to that narrow gate, to go to that cross, whereby all his burden would roll away.
But after that, do you think he had an easy time? No. If you read Pilgrim’s Progress, you will find all kinds of imaginable problems. But good problems—these are problems which, if you solve them, you make progress. And God allowed it in order to complete this.
And eventually, by the grace of God, he reached the goal. So, dear brothers and sisters, this is where we are. And especially as we come to the end of this world, we believe that we are living at the end of this age.
Things cannot be worse. So, in other words, we are actually on the last stretch of our running. Now, the last stretch of running is the most difficult stretch. So near and yet so far.
Your legs are trembling. Your hands are hanging. You are all exhausted. It is agony to move on. Now, during that kind of time, that is the real testing—whether you can finish the race or whether you fail and drop down. It depends on that last stretch.
And brothers and sisters, I do feel deeply, and I believe you, my fellow travelers, will see it: we are just like the Hebrew believers at that time. Things are getting more and more difficult for us to follow the Lord.
Temptations become fiercer and stronger. Trials become harder. And during this time, brothers and sisters, many, unfortunately, have turned aside. “Too hard. Too difficult. We just cannot continue.”
What happens to us is unexpected. Now, what should we do when we are in that kind of condition, brothers and sisters? Are your legs beginning to give you up? Is your heart beginning to give you up? Are you thinking of taking a bypass?
Or do you think this is the time to learn the secret of how to endure the race and finish it? So this is the burden of my heart. I am speaking to myself, and I hope that God will use it to speak to each one of us.
How can we endure? How can we press on? You remember the Apostle Paul. He said in 1 Corinthians 9 that we are all in a race, all right, but only one wins the prize. And he said, “So run.” We have to run in such a way that we may obtain the prize.
And that is Paul. When you read Philippians 3:14, he said:
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
And no wonder, when you come to 2 Timothy 4:7, before his martyrdom, he could say:
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith:
And a crown of righteousness was waiting, not only for him but for all who look forward to the coming of the Lord. So, dear brothers and sisters, this is what we must do.
If you are now at a stage where you stay put, or even retreat, or even fall away, or you are wondering whether you are able to finish the race, now let us go to the Word of God and find out the secret.
In Hebrews 12, we find this: “Let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” You know, when we are running, we tend to look at people who are running with us. And we also tend to look within ourselves.
We try to find out, to measure, how much strength is still left in us. And we try to see how many have already dropped out. Now, if you do that, you will find that you will be a dropout. So where should we look?
There are two places we need to look. You know, when you are running, there will be people around cheering you on. Now, that is where you should look. Do not look at those people who are downhearted, but look at people who are cheering you.
And oftentimes, through their cheers, you endure and you finish. Now, so far as we are concerned, thank God, He knows us so well. So through the centuries there have been people who have finished the course. They have won the prize, and these people now are surrounding us.
They are cheering us on. Now, that is the reason why we have the Bible. Why do you read the Bible? Why do you read the Old Testament and the history of the people of the past? Why? Because to us, this is more than history. This is witness.
Those people before us have gone through the same things as we are going through today. And by the grace of God, they finished the race. And now they are witnesses. They witness to the fact that it is worth it. It can be done.
Think of Abel. He humbled himself before God, acknowledging that there was no good in him. And he put his trust in the sacrifice, in the lamb slain, shedding the blood for him—not like his brother, trusting in himself, confident that he was good enough for God.
But Abel humbled himself, and even though he was murdered by his brother, he is still living before God.
Think of Enoch. He walked with God for three hundred years, receiving discipline and training until he was fit for heaven. He has arrived, and he is there cheering us.
And then you think of Abraham, coming from an idol-worshiping family. But in seeking the truth, God revealed Himself to him, and the glory of God appeared to him and drew him. So he left everything behind and followed the Lord by faith.
Think of Moses. He despised all the riches of Egypt in order to bear reproach with his brethren. And thank God, these people have all arrived. God bore witness to them that they have arrived, and they are now surrounding us.
Brothers and sisters, we are not alone. In the spiritual sense, we have a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, cheering us to press on. So do not look at those who are downhearted, who have given up, dropped off, or dropped dead.
But look at all these who have arrived. And when you look at them and hear their cheers, they encourage you to press on. That is what we should do. So that is why we should read the Word of God, because the more you read the Word of God, the more you are encouraged.
But most of all, the writer to the Hebrews says, “Looking steadfastly to Jesus, the Leader and Completer.” This word, looking steadfastly, means to look away from everything else and look exclusively unto Jesus.
Do not look at yourself. Do not look at your brothers and sisters. Do not look at what happened to other people. Look away, look off from all things, and keep your gaze upon Jesus.
Now, in Hebrews 3, we are told that we should consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Now, we have a confession. What do we confess? We confess Jesus.
We confess that Jesus is the Apostle of God, and He is the High Priest of God. Now, what do you mean when we confess Him as the Apostle of our confession? Apostle simply means the sent one—the One who is sent.
He is sent by God for a specific mission, and it is the mission, the work, of redemption. He is sent by His Father into this world for that purpose of redeeming. That is the work He came to do, and thank God, He did it.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world, lived thirty-three and a half years, and He set His face toward Jerusalem. He gave Himself up to be crucified. For what? For our redemption.
He died on the cross. He shed His blood to wash our sins away. He opened the way for us to return to God. He is the Apostle. He has done it.
So when our Lord Jesus, before He gave up His spirit on the cross, shouted, “It is finished,” the work was done. And, brothers and sisters, it is on the finished work of Christ that we believe, and this is our confession.
But remember, our confession is more than that. Our confession is that He is not only the Apostle sent by God into the world to finish a work, but after He had finished the work, He was raised from the dead on the third day and ascended on high, seated at the right hand of God His Father.
He is there to be our High Priest. So, you know, this is our confession. Not only do we believe our Lord Jesus died for us, but we also believe He was raised, ascended, and seated at the right hand of the Father.
He is now our High Priest. Now, what do you mean by High Priest? He is taking all that He has done and finished on earth, and He is praying, He is applying it, He is seeing to it that all that He has done becomes our experience.
That we experience everything that He has done; that we enter into all that He has prepared for us. In other words, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, and you are complete in Him.
Now, how are you to be complete? By His intercession. He ever liveth, making intercession for us, that He may save us to the uttermost. And while He is pleading as the High Priest, He sent the Holy Spirit to this earth to dwell in each one of us.
And the Holy Spirit does the work that He prays for. That is how. In other words, what our Lord Jesus did two thousand years ago is not past history. It is of eternal effect, and it is still living, applicable, operative, and working in those who confess Him.
Now, are we not experiencing Him daily in that fashion, seeing that all that He is, all that He has done, and all that He has opened up for us is available?
Grace is available. Faith is available. Love is available. Hope is available. All the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus are ours.
That is how we confess and consider Him as our Apostle and High Priest. Now, consider—what is consider? Consider is not a fleeting thought. Consider is that you think about it, you take it to heart, you ponder over it, and you go through it again and again and again.
Now, that is consideration. Now, brothers and sisters, have you ever been considering Jesus in that way? The more you consider what your confession is, what Jesus Christ is, the more you are encouraged and strengthened.
But there is something more. In Hebrews 3:1, he says, “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of your confession, Jesus.” But then in Hebrews 12, he says, “Looking steadfastly to Jesus, the Leader and Completer of faith.”
Now, you have confession, so you have faith—faith in Him. Now, if you have faith in Him, what do you find out? You find that He is more than just an Apostle and High Priest, as if He is somewhere else.
You find that He is the Author, or Leader, or Cause, and the Completer, the Finisher, the summing up of your faith. Now, let me explain.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world to accomplish His mission, how did He do it? Was it an easy task? If you read the four Gospels, you will realize that when our Lord Jesus came into this world, from the very beginning of His birth to the end of His life on the cross, His path was not easy.
He was born in a manger—no place in any home, no place even in any inn. When He was before two years old, He had to flee for His life because Herod wanted to kill Him.
He was born in Bethlehem, but He was not able to live there. He grew up in Nazareth, a hilly, out-of-the-way place. There was a proverb at that time: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
When He began His ministry, it seemed as if, in the beginning, He was welcomed. But later, gradually, when His real purpose of ministry became known, He was rejected—rejected by His own people.
He was misunderstood even by His disciples. They could not understand Him. He was betrayed by one of His chosen disciples and denied by the first of the disciples, Peter. Not easy. That race was not easy.
Think of the Garden of Gethsemane. There He was, as if pressed in a winepress. He prayed until blood came out as sweat. Not easy.
When He was crucified, He was all alone—rejected by the world, even forsaken by His Heavenly Father. But He endured.
In other words, brothers and sisters, He was opening a way for us. There was no way back to heaven, but He came to open a way back to heaven. He opened and dedicated a new and living way for us.
He is the Leader. He leads the way. He is not just telling us where to go and staying back Himself. He leads us. He blazed the path. He leads the way.
He faced all the problems, difficulties, and trials for us. There is no temptation that anyone experiences which He has not experienced, yet without sin—faithful to the One who called Him until He finished.
Brothers and sisters, He leads the way. He opens the way, and now He is beckoning us to follow. Do you think following in this way will be more difficult than opening the way? It has been opened.
How much He had to endure. How much He had to lay down Himself, completely forgetting Himself, not thinking of Himself. For the love of the Father, He endured the cross, bearing the shame. Why? For the joy that lay before Him.
What is the joy? The joy of seeing His Father satisfied; the joy of seeing people redeemed; the joy of seeing God’s purpose and desire of having a house fulfilled. How faithful!
He is the Leader. Follow the Leader. Do not follow anybody. Do not follow me. No matter how good a man is, he is undependable. If we follow man, we fall apart. But if we look off unto Jesus, the more you look at Him, the more you are strengthened.
Therefore, let us look off unto Jesus. He is the Leader, and not only the Leader; He is the Completer, the Finisher of faith.
In other words, not only does He beckon us to follow, He actually is running together with us. He is running in us. Whether we go through water or we go through fire, He goes through it together with us.
He is witnessing by His Spirit, seeing that we will finish the race. Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is not far away in heaven. Yes, He is there, but by His Spirit He is everywhere. He is in you; He is in me. He is near.
He is running with us and in us, and He is seeing to it that we finish it. Isn’t that encouragement?
Brothers and sisters, when we really give ourselves totally up to Him, there is nothing to us. Everything is easy. We are more than conquerors through Him.
So this is the secret. The secret is: look off unto Jesus. Jesus.
And the more you look with your inner eyes, the more you see: oh, wonderful; oh, beautiful; how plentiful; how glorious. Yes, He is worth it. He is our prize. He is the One whom we want to win.
If He is pleased, nothing else matters. People may misunderstand you. People may forsake you. People may oppose you. People may laugh at you, ridicule you, and think you foolish. But if your God sees these things, what do you need?
And what will be the result? As the Apostle Paul said, a crown of righteousness is waiting for all who desire and look forward to the coming of the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, what are we to do? Is there any other way for us? Thank God, He is the way, and we have to walk in Him until we arrive, by the grace of God, in His presence.
Dear Lord, in ourselves there is no strength, no more strength. In ourselves, there is all discouragement. You know ourselves: we are in despair, even of ourselves.
But as we look up, we see Thee there, full of hope, full of faith, full of love. Oh, dear Lord, teach us how to look steadfastly to Jesus, the Leader and Finisher.
We give Thee all the glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.