SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: That's really what I want to talk about on this holiday weekend is just taking a moment to praise Jesus for the depth of his love.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12, and we're going to talk for a few moments this morning about the depth of Jesus' love.
SPEAKER_01: Just as we've sung about it, the only person who could have saved us is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The one who did save us is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The promise and hope of heaven comes only through Jesus, our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: As you're turning, I want to give you a little preview.
SPEAKER_01: Next week, we're going to start a church-wide study on the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll go through this fall, breaking down the book of Philippians each week, and it's going to be a great study.
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited about it, and we're working through that, and then we're going to land somewhere around Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: And then, just to give you another little preview, starting at Christmas time, we're going to start with the birth of Jesus, and we're going to work our way through the life of Jesus from his birth in December through his death, burial, and resurrection at Easter time next year.
SPEAKER_01: So it'll be a great time as we study these together.
SPEAKER_01: But today we're going to talk about the depth of Jesus' love.
SPEAKER_01: So read with me here in Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when we see the word therefore, we always ask the question, what is it therefore, right?
SPEAKER_01: So we're connecting back to this previous chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes old time preachers used to call that the faith hall of fame.
SPEAKER_01: And that one line in the middle song that the choir led, and then we joined in singing later, it talked about the saints and the hall of saints and all of those who'll be singing with us in heaven and their testimony.
SPEAKER_01: And that's really what the book of Hebrews chapter 11 is about.
SPEAKER_01: It begins with the it teaches us what faith in Jesus is, and then it runs through the uh sort of a reader's digest version of the Old Testament, and it says things like, by faith, Abraham, when he was called, by faith, Sarah, when she was unable to receive children, received power to conceive offspring.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Abraham, by faith, Isaac, by faith, Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And so it goes on and on through there, describing faith and the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now the entire book of Hebrews is written especially to the Jewish people to explain and show how Jesus is the Savior, and he is the culmination of all the promises that they were looking forward to in the coming Messiah, in the promised Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And so you get to chapter 12, and he says, Now, after teaching us about how the tabernacle and the sacrifices and all of that were a picture of the Messiah who would come.
SPEAKER_01: Then he gives us chapter 11, and he says, Look at all these folks who had their faith and the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 39 at the end of chapter 11, all these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, not yet, because Jesus was coming, but he didn't come in their lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: Since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect or complete without us.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the people who come after the culmination of God's promises in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and then he uses the illustration of an Olympic event, sporting event, to cast this picture.
SPEAKER_01: Since we have a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us.
SPEAKER_01: Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter or completer of our faith, who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.
SPEAKER_01: And there's what it says, this next verse for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won't grow weary and lose heart.
SPEAKER_01: I want to think about this morning the depth of Jesus' love, and I want to put up for you, for us to just keep in front of our minds today this concept for the joy that lay before him.
SPEAKER_01: Why would Jesus go through the cross and the pain of all of that?
SPEAKER_01: Why would he go through the shame of becoming sin for us?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's how much Jesus loves us.
SPEAKER_01: That's how much he loves us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he paints this incredible picture and this illustration for us.
SPEAKER_01: And in these three verses of Hebrews, these are some of the richest three verses in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: We could do a month-long study on just these three verses.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we're going to do is I just want to pull this one theme out for us, and that is the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know there's so much more in this, but what I really want to capture, this idea, is how much he loved us.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy that lay before him, he endured a cross and shame for us to be our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Now get this picture.
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome to have football season back.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That should get a good reaction right there.
SPEAKER_01: And so most people won yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: That was a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: So we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_01: But football season is fun, and it's something that we can relate to in this illustration.
SPEAKER_01: So picture here in this time, this time of Rome and all of that, when that sort of universal experience, this illustration would make sense.
SPEAKER_01: You're picture in the Roman Colosseum, and you have here the runners, and they're beginning to tow the line, and he's painting this incredible picture.
SPEAKER_01: You have all the crowd around them in the stands screaming and cheering and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Then you have the runners who come and they take off an outer robe, and they're down just like runners today, into a very minor type of easy-to-move in, just barely keeps them modest, so they don't have anything that gets in the way, nothing that slows them down, so they can run a pure and fast race.
SPEAKER_01: They set them toes on the mark, they look to the finish line, and they focus on that finish line.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd is screaming and all of that, and they're ready to run.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul paints that picture for us and says, Listen, I want you to run a race just like that.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to illustrate to you how much Jesus loves you by all of this.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of discussion at times about this phrase.
SPEAKER_01: Such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we need to unpack that just a little bit to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when we have someone who we love who's gone to heaven or whatever, we we think about the idea that somehow they're up in heaven cheering us on.
SPEAKER_01: The picture is all of these witnesses that were described and run through in chapter 11, all of them, it is the cheering of the crowd, is their testimony to point us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It is the testimony of the faithfulness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They are cheering by their testimony when they look to the promise of the Redeemer, and God met that promise, that it is that testimony that speaks to us.
SPEAKER_01: The word witness there is the word.
SPEAKER_01: We have that root word in the original language it was written in, is the root word that we get the word martyr from.
SPEAKER_01: It is this idea that they have sold out their lives onto the promises of God, and God was faithful to that, and now that testimony points us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a loud and a caucophonous sound and testimony.
SPEAKER_01: Just because it's this way does not mean it's lessened in any way.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's even greater.
SPEAKER_01: If you think about a runner who comes to the line, they could be surrounded by people screaming and shouting like us, but what if they were sitting and they were about to start the race and all the people in the crowd around them were all Olympic champions, all screaming and cheering that if you run the race well, you will win the prize.
SPEAKER_01: Keep your eyes on the finish line, and you can win the prize.
SPEAKER_01: And you think about the depth even greater of that crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Crowds and sporting events have a huge impact.
SPEAKER_01: Um years ago, September 21st, 1996, I had an opportunity to have a guy's weekend with my dad.
SPEAKER_01: That was a significant date for us as sports fans.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the Tennessee Volunteers and the Florida Gators were ranked number one and two.
SPEAKER_01: And they were playing in Knoxville.
SPEAKER_01: Peyton Manning was the quarterback of the Tennessee Volunteers, and Danny Worfell was the quarterback of the Florida Gators, and it was a humongous game with national title implications on the line.
SPEAKER_01: And I called my dad and I said, Hey, I got tickets.
SPEAKER_01: This one's on me.
SPEAKER_01: You're coming with me, I'm taking you to the ball game.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he was not a volunteer fan.
SPEAKER_01: He hated the volunteers, but he loved me, and he was glad I had a job, so he was grateful they gave me a degree.
SPEAKER_01: So we uh so he loaded up in the truck and went with me.
SPEAKER_01: We were sitting on the top row of Nayland Stadium.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you've never been there, Nayland Stadium, a lot of stadiums are like spread out, kind of like a bowl.
SPEAKER_01: The uh stadium and the University of Memphis is like that where I grew up and was a Tiger fan.
SPEAKER_01: But in Knoxville, it's very much a straight up, almost like a piece of glass, almost like a glass.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's very, very vertical.
SPEAKER_01: If you're sitting on one of those upper stands, I mean you're you're you're always afraid you're gonna fall over down the steps.
SPEAKER_01: We're literally sitting on the top row of the stands.
SPEAKER_01: And there were at that point the largest college football game in history.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's been broken a number of times over and over and over again, but then on that particular day, there were 107,608 people in the stadium.
SPEAKER_01: 107,608 people.
SPEAKER_01: We're sitting on the stand and they're starting to play and they're doing Rocky Top and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: My dad's rolling his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I hate that song, son.
SPEAKER_01: Will they please stop?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, hopefully, Dad, you're gonna hear it a lot today.
SPEAKER_01: And so here we are, and so now it's time.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody cheers, everybody begins to scream, they the band forms the power tee, they open that up, the team begins to run onto the field, and it is so loud I can't hear anything.
SPEAKER_01: I lean over to my dad and I start to say something, and he just looks at me like that.
SPEAKER_01: So I literally took my hands and I cupped them on his ear.
SPEAKER_01: I made a seal on the side of his head, and I screamed as loud as I could into my hands, and he turned to look at me and said, I can't understand anything you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: A crowd that is giving testimony is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: It is cacophonous.
SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite scenes is in the movie, uh, the movie about um uh the guy that was the lineman, uh, Burlsworth, at the University of Arkansas.
SPEAKER_01: Greater, if you've never seen it, I encourage you to see it.
SPEAKER_01: He was a walk-on, he had incredible testimony.
SPEAKER_01: When he finally made the team, his first game down on the field, if you've seen that scene, an older guy who's been mentoring him and encouraging him and trying to help him make the team and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: He was so excited with him.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You're on the field for the first time, you're wearing a jersey for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Come here, and he takes him over to the table where the Gatorades are.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Watch this.
SPEAKER_01: They're about to call the hogs.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy says, I've been hearing them call the hogs my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: And the older player says, Never like this.
SPEAKER_01: And they stand there at the table with the Gatorades, and he makes him look at the Gatorade cups.
SPEAKER_01: And when the crowd begins to call the hogs, it is so loud it shakes the ground, the table begins to shake, and all of those Gatorade cups have Gatorades sloshing out of them because of this, because of the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: A crowd is an incredibly powerful motivation.
SPEAKER_01: It is incredibly powerful to think about that cheering and the volume and the loud and what that means.
SPEAKER_01: And if you go to one of those other schools, like Texas or somewhere and they don't know how to cheer, I'm sorry for you that you don't get these experiences.
SPEAKER_01: It's an awesome thing to hear that crowd and what it does to the players down on the field.
SPEAKER_01: My son played trumpet in the marching band at the University of Arkansas, and he was just on the corner down where the Razorbacks run into the field, and he said, Dad, it's so awesome to be on the field and to hear the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the picture here.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the testimonies of the people who have given their lives to Jesus and they are cheering to you.
SPEAKER_01: Keep your eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, you get those pictures.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's the command of this verse.
SPEAKER_01: Lay aside every weight and sin that so easily ensnares us.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So we can run the race that's set before us?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: And how do we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and completer of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: We fix our eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We rivet our attention on him.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, we're not looking at the crowd and the people that are cheering us on.
SPEAKER_01: They are telling us keep your eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the only one who can get you there.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the one who loved you enough to design your race and to give you the finish line and to create the strength and his promises and his work in you to get you to the end.
SPEAKER_01: They are pointing us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We are fixing our eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a lot to unpack in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot here in the lay aside the weights and the encumbrances that keep us from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Cast off those sins that are getting in the way of that.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, here's what I believe.
SPEAKER_01: So much about that, it doesn't begin with starting with the sin and looking at that and removing that.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor, where I grew up, used to say all the time, you don't clean yourself up to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You come to Jesus and He cleans you up.
SPEAKER_01: You see, it's all the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the point of this is not to begin with all of that, is to cast this vision of the race, but it is to fix your eyes on Jesus because He is the one.
SPEAKER_01: And once you have your eyes on Him and you see how much He loves you, then you want to get rid of the encumbrances and the barriers.
SPEAKER_01: Then you want to get rid of the sin that pulls you away from the Jesus who endured the cross for you.
SPEAKER_01: I love this picture.
SPEAKER_01: Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us.
SPEAKER_01: The more you read and study this and you get some of these word pictures from the original language, there's two layers to this, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: The first race that he's talking about is just the race of being a faithful believer.
SPEAKER_01: It is surrendering your life to Jesus who died for you.
SPEAKER_01: It is to be faithful to his teaching and the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: It is to be in that transformation process we talked about last week in those three core values for our church evangelism and presence of Jesus and transformation.
SPEAKER_01: It is to surrender yourself and be in that transformation.
SPEAKER_01: But I think there's another layer here as well.
SPEAKER_01: You see, every one of those witnesses that he describes in chapter 11, they have a different journey in how God worked in their lives and through their lives.
SPEAKER_01: They each had different choices of faith.
SPEAKER_01: They each had different ways that God was using them and working in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so there is the layer of the race that is that being transformed in the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But there is an even deeper picture in this illustration.
SPEAKER_01: Because even in those days when they would run a race, you weren't just willy-nilly running over people.
SPEAKER_01: You have a lane in which you ran.
SPEAKER_01: And leaving aside those encumbrances and setting aside that sin is part of preparing yourself to run the race in the lane that you are assigned.
SPEAKER_01: And each one of us has a lane in our lives that we are assigned.
SPEAKER_01: God, the Bible tells us, designed you before you were even born.
SPEAKER_01: You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_01: He has a plan for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Even in salvation, we'll use this verse often in Ephesians 2.89, for by grace you're saved through faith and not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
SPEAKER_01: But then it says in verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that he has prepared beforehand for us to walk in.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we get the idea that God has a plan for your life.
SPEAKER_01: He knows what he wants to do with you, and he knows what he wants to do through you.
SPEAKER_01: And that transformation is that race at one level, and the next level is how that transformation occurs in the lane in which you are as a runner.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, this command fix your eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to run this race, and it's going to be hard, and it's going to require endurance, and there are going to be distractions.
SPEAKER_01: People are encouraging you, keep your eyes on Jesus, and he says, This is how you do it.
SPEAKER_01: You fix your eyes on Jesus, and it's important because of who Jesus is and how much he loves us.
SPEAKER_01: In all the ways that he could describe Jesus here.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You run the race that God has put in front of you by you fixing your eyes on Jesus, and then he describes him, the source and completer of our faith, who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.
SPEAKER_01: He describes Jesus as the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he only uses the one name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So often you see Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And he focuses here on Jesus as our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: You fix your eyes on the person of the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: The name Jesus would be the New Testament name, and the Old Testament name, you would say it Joshua, and it means Yahweh saves or Jehovah saves.
SPEAKER_01: That's the name what Jesus has.
SPEAKER_01: He is a redeemer from his name through all of his actions.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, listen, you fix your eyes on the Redeemer and the Motivation that we have that is the deepest in all of our lives for every choice of faith that we ever make is the depth of love that Jesus has for us.
SPEAKER_01: Who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross and despised the shame.
SPEAKER_01: No one ever loved us as much as Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So many times we get so, we don't mean to, but we get either into gotta do this or gotta do that.
SPEAKER_01: Or so many times in life we're just focused on trying to get it all done that we are distracted and encumbered or tempted to take our eyes off of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And there are times we need to be reminded of Jesus hanging naked on a cross, beaten and bloodied, and dying there with the weight of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he finished his course for the joy set before him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came here knowing what would happen.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus spent his ministry preaching and teaching about the salvation that comes through Jesus and that he was the Messiah, he was the Son of Man, He came to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus always knowing.
SPEAKER_01: I think every time he went down that road, coming in or out of Jerusalem, I'm gonna die and carry sin there for them.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was so burdened when he went to the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says he got on his knees and he prayed, and it was so intense, it was like he was sweating drops of blood.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Father, if there's any other way to do this, can we find another way?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus at that point not only was the sinless and holy Son of God, he had then, as a man, lived a sinless life up to that point.
SPEAKER_01: And the idea that he would have to become not just sin, but all sin.
SPEAKER_01: And yet there was a joy on the other side.
SPEAKER_01: There was a love that drove him to see the results.
SPEAKER_01: There was a love that drove him to see the plan while he was there.
SPEAKER_01: Father, if there is another way to do this, please can we find one?
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus said, Not my Jesus will, but yours, the Father, be done.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you three thoughts about how deeply Jesus loves us from this passage.
SPEAKER_01: If we're to fix our eyes on Jesus, he says first, the author or the designer or the source and completer of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loved us so much.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says from the very foundation of time, he was set to be our Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew that when we sinned, there was no other way for redemption to occur than for Him to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew from the very beginning, from the time Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and from the time that sin was replicated through the lives of generation after generation after generation as it moved throughout humanity.
SPEAKER_01: When you reached the point where it was so bad, God said, Listen, I'm gonna start over with Noah and his family, and it didn't fix any of it.
SPEAKER_01: It just continued to expand and down through our lives and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loved you so much he went to the cross because he knew that he was the only one who could do it.
SPEAKER_01: He designed it.
SPEAKER_01: He knew this is the price that must be paid.
SPEAKER_01: Sin must be punished.
SPEAKER_01: A holy God the Father must punish that sin.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world are we going to pay the price for that sin?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus knew someone would have to die, a man's death to pay the price for man's sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he designed it knowing that then he would have to be the one who completed it and did it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loved you and me so much that he designed salvation and he created the plan of salvation, knowing what it would cost him.
SPEAKER_01: And yet he designed it and came anyway.
SPEAKER_01: One of the most shocking stories that when you begin to unpack it in Scripture, we don't know a lot about the childhood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We know after he was born, he was taken to the temple and they did what they were supposed to do in terms of dedication and purification and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: We know at some point when Herod started killing babies.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever noticed in Scripture every evil nation kills unborn and innocent babies?
SPEAKER_01: Just look that up in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: How God never blesses and always judges a nation who kills unborn.
SPEAKER_01: And so God told Joseph to take his family to Egypt when Jesus was a toddler to protect him from that evil.
SPEAKER_01: At some point they moved back, and then somewhere around his teenage years, his younger teenage years, scholars estimate 11, 12, 13, somewhere around there, they go to the temple and we get this one story where they pack up their belongings after being there at the Passover in Jerusalem, and they head back to where they were living, and they get a couple of days out, and Mary looks at Joseph and says, Hey, where's Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And Joseph says, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I thought he was with you.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary says, No, he's with you.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, No, you're the one that said you were going to get him.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, No, you're going to get him.
SPEAKER_01: No, where and then where are they?
SPEAKER_01: And they realize they left him back in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And they pack up and they head back to Jerusalem and they find him in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: He is sitting there learning from the rabbis, and they are in awe of what he knows.
SPEAKER_01: And they get on to him, Jesus, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to be with us.
SPEAKER_01: We were so terrified.
SPEAKER_01: We thought we'd lost you.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Did you not know I would be about my father's business?
SPEAKER_01: Now, on the one hand, that's awesome, man.
SPEAKER_01: You think, boy, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: He's that young and he's already learning scripture and he's already doing that.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, what do you think his father's business is?
SPEAKER_01: He knows who he is and what he's come to do.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus lived his life knowing that he was the only plan for us.
SPEAKER_01: But he came and he went through every temptation the Bible says in this very book of Hebrews that we go through, and he did it all so that one day when we face trouble, we would know we would have a high priest who went through every single temptation that we ever go through as people.
SPEAKER_01: The complexity and the fullness with which he designed our salvation and walked through all of the struggles that we go through.
SPEAKER_01: He did all of that because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot imagine living 30 years of your life, knowing what the end was going to entail.
SPEAKER_01: This setting our eyes on him or keeping our eyes on him or fixing, some translations say.
SPEAKER_01: That word in the original language has the idea that it is you have put your eyes on the only hope that you have and you have excluded anything else from your view.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the source and the perfecter or complet of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: It is understanding that Jesus loved me more than no one else, but Jesus is the only one who can save me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the only hope that we have.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I'm going to take everything that Satan gives.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to take every weight of this sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to take every failure and mistake and choice that every person has ever taken.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to take it to that cross because I see the redemption at the other end.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, who planned that redemption, who knew he was the only one who could accomplish it, now he steps into that role and he takes that sin.
SPEAKER_01: Every whip from a Roman soldier, Jesus took for you.
SPEAKER_01: When we got to the end, there would be hope.
SPEAKER_01: He saw that redemption and he said, Whatever it takes, I'm going to get there.
SPEAKER_01: Not my will, Father, but yours be done.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to get there.
SPEAKER_01: He hung on that cross and he never lost his heart for us.
SPEAKER_01: When that thief cried out, remember me today.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Brother, that's why I'm hanging on this cross.
SPEAKER_01: It is for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And today you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went through every struggle of that.
SPEAKER_01: But have you ever thought about all of our sins?
SPEAKER_01: The shame of that sin.
SPEAKER_01: The shame as holy Jesus, when he knew that Heavenly Father looked down out of heaven and he looked at him and he saw the sins that had to be punished on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus cries out on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: He knows the shame of sin.
SPEAKER_01: The perfect and holy Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he took that shame for you.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the Bible says he took it joyously.
SPEAKER_01: There is a joy on the other end of this journey.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to save my people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to create hope through salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I am going to accomplish the work that we set out and that we designed to do.
SPEAKER_01: I can keep going.
SPEAKER_01: I can make it to the end because redemption for my people lies on the other end.
SPEAKER_01: That's how much Jesus loves us.
SPEAKER_01: That He endured that cross and shame for us.
SPEAKER_01: One other thing about that joy.
SPEAKER_01: I love this phrase.
SPEAKER_01: He says, He endured for the joy set before him.
SPEAKER_01: He endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.
SPEAKER_01: We sang about that moment this morning.
SPEAKER_01: That's one reason I got so excited because I knew what we were singing.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy set before him, Jesus designed redemption and he knew what it looked like.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew that he was the only one that could accomplish it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus grabbed a hold of that vision and that joy, and he endured everything that he went through to get there.
SPEAKER_01: And now it is real.
SPEAKER_01: He sits at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: What happens there at the right hand of God?
SPEAKER_01: Look with me in your Bibles in Revelation chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had a vision of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: He had a vision of the completion of what salvation meant.
SPEAKER_01: He had a vision, and the joy of death would lose its sting and power over us when he conquered it, when he rose again.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew the plan was not just forgiveness to Greg, but it was restoration.
SPEAKER_01: It was full redemption.
SPEAKER_01: It was the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It was all of eternity spent.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus is honored in heaven, he is honored as the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means he's sitting down on the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Just read with me in Revelation chapter 5, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: John in this vision says, I sat, I saw on the right hand of the one seated on the throne, a scroll with writing on the inside and on the back sealed with seven seals.
SPEAKER_01: I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?
SPEAKER_01: But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it.
SPEAKER_01: And I cried and cried because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to even look in it.
SPEAKER_01: Then one of the elders said to me, Stop crying! Look! The lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has been victorious so that he may open the scroll and his seven seals.
SPEAKER_01: Then I saw the one like a slaughtered lamb.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this is what Jesus saw ahead.
SPEAKER_01: It's what he planned from the beginning of time.
SPEAKER_01: It's what he endured the cross to accomplish.
SPEAKER_01: I saw the one like a slaughtered lamb standing before the throne, and four living creatures among the elders, and he had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent into all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He came and he took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: Each one had a harp and gold boils filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 11 of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: And they sang a new song.
SPEAKER_01: And what is the song that they sing?
SPEAKER_01: It is the celebration of redemption and the redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slaughtered, and you redeemed your people for God by your blood.
SPEAKER_01: From every tribe and language and people and nation, you made them a kingdom and priests to our gods, and they will reign on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: That is who Jesus is, seated at the right hand of Father.
SPEAKER_01: That is the vision of redemption that Jesus had.
SPEAKER_01: He went so that we could be redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: He went so he could open the scrolls, so he could open the Lamb's book of life, so that he could redeem the people who he died for that placed their faith in him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus saw fully this is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: This is what an eternity in heaven looks like.
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens when I bring my people to me for the joy set before him.
SPEAKER_01: He endured a cross and the shame of sin.
SPEAKER_01: And now he is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father as the victorious Lamb of God, and we are looking forward to the redemption of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So when you find your race tomorrow, when you find your race this week, as you were grappling with your lane, what is your lane?
SPEAKER_01: What are you running in?
SPEAKER_01: Listen, listen to everyone who has ever known the faithfulness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Keep your eyes on Jesus, fix your eyes on him.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing else will help you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loved you enough.
SPEAKER_01: He designed this for you, he did this for you, and he will accomplish this for you.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy set before him.
SPEAKER_01: Are your eyes on Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, are they fixed?
SPEAKER_01: Is there anything else that you're depending on, that you're looking forward to, that you're trying to rely on?
SPEAKER_01: Is there anything other than the work of Jesus, the plan of Jesus, the person of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: If you're trying to rely on anything else, if you're living on anything else, listen, I want to encourage you this morning, remember how much Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_01: This is who he is and what he's done for us in our lives to keep our eyes fixed on him.
SPEAKER_01: We have to spend time thinking about, focused on, clinging to Jesus, the source and completer of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Who, for the joy that lay before him, endured a cross and shame and is now seated as the victorious Lamb of God on the right hand of the Father for you.
SPEAKER_01: Let go whatever else it is.
SPEAKER_01: Quit clinging to whatever else you're clinging to.
SPEAKER_01: Quit looking at whatever you are fixated on, whatever is getting in the way where you are not seeing the race that He has given you and prepared for you, and the finish line that he has created for you, and the person that he is to carry you through that race.
SPEAKER_01: Quit looking at other things, depending on other things, and cling to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to bow your heads as we close this morning.
SPEAKER_01: That fixing your eyes on Jesus begins with salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Has there ever been a moment in your life where you trusted Christ and Him alone as your Savior?
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you've got no hope outside of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'll come and you'll surrender your life to him, if you'll say, I know I'm a sinner and I know that you had to die for my sins, but I am placing my faith in you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, you're the one who can save.
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: I give you my life.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll just tell him in your own words and give your life to him.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, friends, this is what he died to do for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior in a moment, God's people are going to stand, and just like a cloud of witnesses, we're going to sing about the faithfulness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to sing about Jesus and we're going to try to point everybody to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And if you need to be saved, you come.
SPEAKER_01: We'll have pastors in our aisles here, someone to pray with you, answer questions, walk the journey with you.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is you need, we're here to walk with you because we want you to see Jesus and to run the race he has created for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you need someone to pray with you, you come.
SPEAKER_01: It is our joy to help you set your eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And I thank you for this incredible passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And I ask that the Holy Spirit will make it come alive in ways that I'm unable so that folks can see Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, Father, you give us the freedom to make whatever decision each and every person needs to make to fix their eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It is in his name we pray, and all God's people sin.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand and sing in this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you need Jesus, you come.
SPEAKER_01: If you need prayer, you come.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.